Forbidden Fruit
by Sun Lion
Summary: Sandy's relationship with Maxwell seemed perfect, meant to last. But will Sandy lose everything and alienate her friends in attempts to chase an impossible dream?
1. An invitation

**Forbidden Fruit**

Sup guys. This story's gonna contain SxM, but I'm not gonna reveal much more of the plot. Sandy's in a predicament, and the thing she wants is far out of her reach. Not only is it impractical, but impossible. Will Sandy give up everything to gain what she desires? PS, assume this story is set in North America.

I tried to make this as accurate to the Hamtaro universe as I could. The characters will be as in-character as I can make fit to the story, give or take some creativity here and there. This also means no ham-humans, no original characters with rainbow fur/hair and no supernatural powers. There will be some twists that you won't expect and that I personally haven't seen in Hamtaro fiction (yet). ;D

* * *

My relationship with Maxwell had been growing steadily. In fact, I'd say it was stronger than ever. This is Sandy, in case you were wondering. I don't know what I ever did before I met the guy. It seems like just yesterday that I had tripped while practicing my gymnastics and he showed up in front of me to help me up. Why I hadn't noticed his charm before that point was beyond me. It was soon after that first meeting where Stan came back into my life, and he kind of took over for a while. But soon the novelty of having my brother back faded away (he was just as annoying as ever!) and I could focus my attention back on Maxwell.

Maxwell was all over me, too. If his nose wasn't shoved in a book he was always willing to help me with something or come play with us. He'd even play acorn soccer if I begged him to. In exchange, I'd sit down and do the more quiet things he loves. I'd discovered his hobbies weren't so bad, either.

I wished so bad that I hadn't screwed it up. If I could go back and do it all over I would. I won't tell you quite what happened yet, but we'll get there. Let's rewind a few months to early November...

On this particular day were all sitting around the clubhouse table drinking tea and discussing the usual subjects. It was the same thing we did every day, but it was still more fun than sitting at home sleeping. Stan sat on one side of me and Maxwell on the other. The constant shaking of my brother's maracas in my one ear made me wonder if I'd be deaf on that side someday. Maxwell was looking through his new, updated encyclopedia. It was the one I'd given him for his birthday.

I heard Hamtaro talk and looked up. "I think we should go on an adventure, everybody! How about it? We've sat around here long enough!" he exclaimed in his distinctive cheery voice.

"But Hamtaro, we just went to acorn mountain yesterday, don't you think zat is enough for a while?" Bijou answered.

"But..."

"Bijou's right," Boss said, agreeing with her of course. He still had a gigantic crush on her and could not for the life of him confess it to her. "We just went on an adventure _yesterday_. Let's chill out for a little bit. We don't need to do something every day, you know."

"Boss is right. Maybe tomorrow wwe can think of something to do," Bijou agreed. Boss's face turned bright red but Bijou couldn't see it as she sat on the same side of the table as him. Honestly, I felt kinda bad for the big guy, but what can you do? I'd tell Bijou myself but Boss would strange me. The ham's like a bear.

Hamtaro sighed and drank another sip of tea. We all waited around and finished our cups before Panda got up.

"Who wants to play cards with me?" he asked. Dexter, Howdy, and Cappy all got up and joined him on the floor. "Alright, what game?"

Then Stan stood up beside me. "Lame-o, guys. I'm going to play outside if anyone wants to join me. It's a beautiful day, let's go have fun!" he said with a shake of his maracas. All but me, Maxwell, and Panda followed him outside. And Snoozer, of course, but that should just be assumed by this point. Panda walked over to the entrance of his tool room and stopped.

"I'm going to go work on some stuff. You hams can do whatever," Panda said before closing the door behind him. This left just me and Maxwell. Perfect. I had been waiting for some 1-on-1 time with him for a while.

"Ahh, finally some peace and quiet!" Maxwell said. "I might go sit in Boss's lounge chair, actually. Don't tell him, kay?" he winked.

"Don't worry about it Maxy, I wouldn't!" I giggled. Boss's chair was the comfiest in the whole place but he wouldn't let anyone sit in it. And if he caught us, well, he'd probably strangle us again. I wonder if he's ever considered professional wrestling? I imagined him in a tight latex suit, not the most pleasant thought. I snapped back from my daydream when I heard Maxwell speak.

"Say, Sandy, I wanted to ask you something..." My heart began to beat faster. A marriage proposal? Nahh, too early for that. A breakup? Not even! What could he want? I slowly walked over to him. The anticipation was killing me.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to spend some time together tomorrow." He paused. "...Like, not with the other ham-hams. And not at the clubhouse. Just the two of us." He reached up and rubbed my cheek with his paw. "We need some time alone, you know."

I couldn't help but turn red. "Like, of course! What were you thinking about doing?"

He thought for a moment. "Ohh, maybe just spend an afternoon at the park, just to relax or something. Or did you have an idea?"

"No, that sounds perfect. The afternoon works, too," I confirmed. "Sitting outside and seeing the sunset would be nice, but of course we can't be out too late or our humans might notice."

"And alas, the innocent plight of the hamster is again quashed by the ever watchful eye of the human! Sometimes it seems that life would be so much easier without them, a ham could do as he pleased. But thinking about it now I would have a hard time giving mine up." I tossed the thought around in my head a bit. I didn't quite agree, as I loved my human dearly, but I nodded in response. "We can spend the morning at the clubhouse and go to the park later. Maybe we can walk to the clubhouse together tomorrow morning? I can meet you by your house. We can make it our special day."

"Sure! I'll be there. Want me to-" I was interrupted as Panda burst out of his workshop.

"Ugh!! Has anyone seen my wrench? I swear, my tools can't just disappear!" He hiffed around the room a bit, trying to sniff it out. "They've been going missing one by one for days! I can't get anything done!" Maxwell and I were caught in a bit of an awkward moment. We looked like a couple of deer in the headlights. I thought up an excuse to get him out of the room.

"Say, Panda, I think I might have seen Stan go in there and take your wrench. Like, in fact, I think I've seen him take other stuff too. You'd better go do something about that," I said as seriously as I could. "He's outside."

"_Stan's_ been doing this? Why that little-! I swear when I find him ..." he ran out the door, slamming it behind him. I felt a little bad, as Stan had definitely not stolen any tools, (what use would he have with them?) but it was always amusing to see him caught in a situation like that. The trouble I'd get in later from him would be totally worth it.

"Where was I?" I said. "Oh yeah, you were meeting me at my house tomorrow morning."

"I'm looking forward to our day together." he smiled at me. Maxwell was _such_ the most awesome guy. I stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and tilted his head off to one side, enjoying it while it lasted.

I moved back over to the side of his chair. "You know, we'd better move along though as I have a feeling Stan will be back in here any second. And I don't want him catching us like this, catch my drift?"

"I know, I can make it look like we weren't up to anything," he laughed. He turned around and opened up to a random page in his encyclopedia and buried his head into it. I turned around to walk back to my stool at the table, and almost on cue Stan came crashing through the doorway.

"SANDY!! What the heke did you say to Panda? The guy's nuts!! I didn't steal any of his tools, what's going on?" he panted. I pretended not to even notice he was in the room.

"Sandy? SANDY. ANSWER ME." He came up behind me and shook me. I gave him the silent treatment. "Panda said that you told him I've been sneaking his tools out! Why would you do that?" He spun me around and looked me right in the eyes. I stared through him, keeping a blank expression. "Christ, can you at least acknowledge I'm here? Hello-o-o?" I slowly slid sideways off my chair and landed with a thump on the floor, just to be dramatic.

"Man, everyone's psycho! What's your problem? Get up!" he kicked my leg. He couldn't continue any further as Panda came running through the door, followed by the rest of the ham-hams. We hadn't seen this much excitement in here for days. I had trouble keeping a straight face as I continued to stare at the wall.

"Ahhh! I swear, I didn't do anything! Trust me Panda!!" Stan backed away from Panda, who was glaring at him. "I didn't even know your tools were missing!" Panda continued to inch towards him as the rest of the ham-hams just watched. I saw Maxwell turn his head to see what was going on, and then went back to reading his book.

"I ... I ... AHA!" Stan pointed at me. "Her eyes moved! Sandy, please explain to Panda that you obviously lied to him!" Busted.

I stood up from my spot, dawdling to try and think up an explanation. Before I could even say anything, a small voice was heard from the utility room.

"Ookwee! Ookwee!" Everyone's eyes turned to Penelope. She came trotting out of the room with Panda's wrench in hand. "Ookwee!"

"...Hey, my wrench! Penelope, how did you find it?" Panda went over and grabbed it from her.

Pashmina sighed. "Uh oh. Looks like Penelope's up to her usual shenanigans again. Chances are the rest of your tools are in there too," she said apologetically.

Panda wasted no time in inspecting the utility room. Sure enough, they were all in there. At least he was happy. Stan turned back around and glared at me. Looks like I had some explaining to do.

"Well, that's solved! Now, Panda, please apologize to Stan. Looks like we just had a little confusion, here."

Panda looked down at his feet. "Sorry Stan. But my tools are important to me."

"Don't worry about it. S'all right, you didn't know better," Stan said reassuringly, knowing that Panda easily had his feeling hurt. I knew I had to make a run for it before Stan could beat me up for inciting the rage of Panda, as rare as it happened.

"Sorry guys, but my human's coming home early today. I'd better get home," I lied and quickly made my way out the door. It seems like I'd done a lot of lying to get my way out of things today. I might have to stop doing that.

* * *

It had been a few hours before Hillary got home, since I left the clubhouse so early. She walked into her room and set down her things after a long day of school and work. I stood at the front of my cage to greet her, as I always did. She kneeled down and opened my cage door, and I gladly hopped into her palm.

"And how was your day, Sandy?" she asked me as she rubbed the top of my head with her finger. I always liked reflecting back on my day when she asked me that.

_"Complicated,"_ I answered silently. _"And yet, it was awesome. I can't wait for tomorrow, Maxwell and I are spending the day together. Not that you'd know him of course. And I got Stan in trouble. But it was all good." _She brought me up to her face and I nuzzled her cheek. She smiled. Hillary was the best owner I could ever ask for. I'm glad that she didn't give me away to Noel way back when, but I'm sure he's just fine too. Stan seems to like him.

Hillary took me over to her bed, where she laid down. I rested on her chest while she relaxed for a moment. Finally, she got back up and put me in my cage for the night. "I've got a lot of homework to do, Otherwise I'd keep you out longer," she said. That was okay, I had other things to think about.

I could barely sleep that night. Tomorrow would be one of the first days that Maxwell and I would ever have alone. Hopefully there would be more to come.

Little was I ever concerned about the conflicting variable that would interfere.

* * *

What could it be~

Please review!


	2. Lost, physically and mentally

Chapter 2

THIS CHAPTER IS LONG! But it's going to reveal quite a bit more about the rest of the plot, if you pay attention. Things are gonna get weird u guize.

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The sun shining in my face woke me up this morning. I rubbed my eyes and saw that Hillary had already left for the day. And then ... wait! Today was the day Maxwell and I were going to spend together! I had almost forgotten. Hoping I wasn't late, I quickly climbed out of my cage and up to the second-story windowsill. Looks like Maxwell was already there. Oh, I hope he hadn't been waiting too long! I slid down the vines that creeped up the side of Hillary's house.

"Ahh, sorry to keep you waiting! I must have overslept!" I said exasperatedly. Maxwell waved his paw at me and shook his head.

"Nahh, I've only been here about 5 minutes. You're fine," he said. That was a relief. "Good morning, by the way. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

"If I hadn't been so excited for today I'm sure I would have," I joked. "But don't worry, I have plenty of energy left in me. We'd better get moving if we want to get to the clubhouse anytime soon."

He took my paw and we began to walk together. It was truly a nice day outside. In fact, the whole week had been really nice so far, especially for November. I took in the sights and smells of autumn. It was so peaceful outside.

Our walk seemed to end too soon. We found ourselves outside of the clubhouse already, and there was the entire gang looking like they were going someplace. Hopefully this wouldn't impede on our own plans today.

"You're late!" Boss called out to us. "We decided to go do something outside the clubhouse today. We're going to go check out the local high school."

"Yeah! We were going to go to the elementary school at first, since a bunch of our humans go there, but then Boss said we've already been there plenty of times. I don't think any of us have really seen the high school, I wonder how different it is?" Hamtaro said. Of course we'd been there many times, and it was usually to help out Laura in one of her predicaments. I don't know why everyone cared about Hamtaro's owner so much. That or she just got herself into situations that needed our help all the time. I mean, she's a nice human, but does she really need us all that often when she got herself in trouble? I usually pretended to care, I have a feeling the other ham-hams did the same most of the time.

"Oh, I've been to the high school before!" Maxwell exclaimed proudly. "They have a large selection of academic books in their library. But nothing compares to the college library." He must know more than anyone in the universe. In fact, I'd almost say he knows more than one of Hillary's professors.

"Let's go, hams, the school awaits us!" Boss cheered. Maxwell tagged along happily, but I followed a bit grudgingly. Today was supposed to be about us, not hanging out with everyone else. I expected our morning at the clubhouse to be like any other, just sitting around relaxing and drinking tea. Oh well. Hopefully we would get back by about noon. Maxwell and I were also going to picnic at the park.

It was a long walk over to the school, too. Good thing for us, class must have already been in session because there was virtually no car traffic and no humans walking outside the school. The high school was a lot bigger than the elementary school, that was for sure.

"Last one there's a mole rat!" I heard Stan call from up ahead. He began to sprint towards the front door, followed by a few of the other guys, and then everyone else, including Maxwell. I felt obliged to join. Unfortunately, I was the last to start running and therefore the last to the door. Stan stuck out his tongue at me. "Loser!"

Now the only problem was getting into the school. We had expected there to be a crack under the door, like there usually is, but there was no such thing here. Maxwell explained it was probably to save energy. "It's so heat doesn't escape in the winter, or cold air in the summer," he said. Made sense enough. But that certainly didn't make it easy for us hamsters.

"Look, up there!" Howdy pointed out a silver, circular object with a blue symbol on it, which looked like a person sitting in a chair. "I've seen humans press on these to open doors before. Maybe that'll work?" Everyone agreed to try it. We made some sort of a hamster pyramid to get to it, except it was less of a pyramid and more of a tall stack of ham-hams. Whenever we did this, the other girls were always at the top so they didn't have to hold so much weight. Of course, I was the "athletic" one so I was closer to the bottom with the rest of the guys. Penelope was at the top, which was a bit of a poor decision because she didn't have the strength to press the button all the way. We had to reorganize with Boss at the top, Penelope sat out. He heaved and finally got it all the way pushed in, and the door began to slowly open. Our stack of hamsters fell and we hurried inside. Howdy wasn't as dumb as he looked.

"Listen, hams, we need to find the class schedule first so we know when the students get out. We need to hide between classes so we don't get seen or trampled, as there's a lot of students in this school. I think there's one hanging by the front office, which is over this way." He motioned over to the left. We followed him to the front office, where there was a yellow paper on the door which showed the class hours.

"Here, the next class gets out at 10:15 exactly, which is in about 45 minutes. The next class gets out at 11:00 , so I'd imagine lunch must be around then," Maxwell read.

"Mm, I could go for lunch right now!" Oxnard said. He must be a bottomless pit because he's always starving.

"Then it's settled, we just need to find a place away from the hallway where we can go between classes. Sounds easy enough, there's plenty of rooms in this school. C'mon, let's go check the place out!" Boss said. We followed him down a random hallway.

The high school was a more interesting place than I thought. It seemed as if there was a class for everyone's interest. Boss and Panda liked the tech class, Stan was interested in the band room, and Pashmina wanted to go look in the sewing class. We were just touring the place for now though, and were planning on splitting up and going to classes that interested us during the next class period. The only rule was we had to go in groups of at least 2 or 3 to keep an eye on each other.

I was in the back of the group as we walked along. As we passed one of the cooking classes, Oxnard, who was just in front of me, veered off from the rest of the group and under the classroom door. Uh oh. Making sure none of the other ham-hams saw me, I hastily followed him.

Inside he was nowhere to be found. I hiffed around to catch his scent, but it was lost in the smell of humans and food. The students were crowded around a table in the front of the room, where it looked like the teacher was demonstrating something. But my mind drifted back to food. Whatever they were making, it sure smelled good. I had completely forgotten about looking for Oxnard. I glanced over to see if any of the students were looking my way, and it appeared to me that they were too engrossed in the teacher's demonstration to care. I inconspicuously climbed up the side of one of the counters to see what was on top. Ooh, it was a pie! My eyes lit up. A chocolate one, it looked like, French silk? Bijou might have told me about these one time. This must have been what the students were learning how to make.

I inched closer to it. Would anyone notice if I took a little nibble? Nahh. I just wanted a taste. I swiped my paw across a small portion of the creamy frosting and licked it off, enjoying every bit. It was delicious! I took one more bite of the frosting. That would have to be it or someone might notice. But just as I was about to leave, a large shadow loomed overhead...

The students had finished their demonstration and I was in big trouble. A human boy stood right in front of me, and he had seen me instantly. I didn't know what to do, and it looked like the boy didn't either. I was too startled to run, but I should have. He looked over his should for a moment, possibly looking for someone, and then grabbed the nearest pan, a round black one with a handle. He held it about a foot above me, honestly looking about as frightened as I probably did. Was he going to ... no ... a human would never purposely hurt a hamster! Unless he thought I was a mouse? Wait, this can't happen yet! I haven't had my day with Maxwell! If I got hurt ... or even killed ...

It would be too little too late, as the human held the pan ready to strike. The whole ordeal took place in a matter of only about five seconds. Looks like my time was up, my fate was to be smashed under a pan instead of living happily with Maxwell. I braced myself and closed my eyes when he brought the pan down.

I heard a dull thud. But there was no pain. Was it over that fast? I opened my eyes again, fully expecting to be surrounded in some sort of ethereal substance. But it was not the case. I looked up to see a second pair of hands grabbing the flat surface of the skillet, a mere three inches from my face. The pan was pulled back revealing a second human that stepped in to intervene just in time. I hadn't even seen him come up behind the first boy before he tried to kill me.

"What are you doin', man? You know Mrs. Burgundy would kill us if you used the skillet to take out a mouse." He said quietly, like he didn't want to be heard by anyone else. The second boy took the pan and set it back down on the counter. "Hold on ... make sure no one sees what's going on." At first I seemed safe again with the second human, but then he took his hand and quickly struck it down on me, knocking me over and just barely pinning me down so I couldn't escape. "Got it!"

"How'd that thing get in here, anyway? I thought this school didn't have mice," the first boy commented. The second appeared to be inspecting me, and I looked back up at him. He was certainly a distinctive looking human, with red hair that fell just above his shoulders. I didn't see many male humans that grew their hair out like that around here. He didn't seem like a person I should trust, whether he saved me or not. The first human had a simple short haircut, his black hair reminded me of Noel's. If he didn't try to kill me I would almost say I trusted him more.

"First of all, I don't think it's a mouse. It looks like a hamster, if you ask me," he told him. "See the tail?" I was feeling awfully uncomfortable. At least they didn't think I was a mouse anymore, humans and hamsters alike despise mice. "...Maybe it escaped from the AP Bio class. I think someone was keeping a hamster in the animal room down there."

"Think you could take it back down there without the teacher finding out?" the first boy questioned.

"Yeah, I'll just ask to go pick something up in the office quick. My AP Bio teacher will let me into the animal room if I tell her I have to feed my newt." Newt? Oh great, he's not a hamster person. "Be right back. You start on this pie, okay?"

The second boy immobilized me by grabbing the back of my neck and then shoved me into the front pocket of his green sweetshirt, with both his hands tucked into it with me. Must have been to fool the teachers so they didn't notice the mysterious hamster-sized lump in his pocket. From there all I could do was listen. I heard him speak to what must have been his teacher, and then he continued to walk. It was quiet except for the sound of his footsteps against the tile floor. I stopped struggling a while back, since it was of no use. All I could see in the dark was a faint green filtering through the fabric of his sweatshirt. I hoped he would let me go soon, since it was getting hot in his pocket. The heat of his hands on both sides of me didn't help either. It wasn't the smoothest ride, either. I heard him talk to what must have been the teacher he had mentioned earlier about feeding his newt. Thinking about it now, I hoped he wasn't going to cut me up and serve me to that slimy thing for dinner. Though I wasn't quite sure what newts fancied for dinner.

Suddenly, he stopped. He took one hand out of his pocket and grabbed me with the other. The bright lights blinded me momentarily as he brought me out. This must have been the animal room. It wasn't very big, but it housed a variety of small tanks and cages. It looked like students brought pets here to take care of for class. The boy squeezed the scruff of my neck harder and got my attention. He raised me up and held me out just a few inches from his face. I could feel his warm breath.

"You should be thankful we found you today, little guy. And the kid who's supposed to be looking after you is lucky, too. I don't think the teacher would take too kindly to a lost pet." I think he must have been referring to another hamster, because my only human is Hillary. He lowered me back down and into a hamster cage on the table. I looked back up at his towering figure.

"You know, you're awfully cute," he told me. I didn't expect the compliment from someone like him. He reached back in the cage and petted me lightly. "It would have been a shame to see you go today. Maybe the kid taking care of you should put a lock on that little door of yours next time." He watched me for a moment. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. I looked up at him, trying to take in some more of his features before he walked away in case I were to ever see him again. The only other defining characteristic was a neatly-groomed patch of hair on his chin and freckles on his face. But then again, every red-haired human I'd seen has had freckles. His eyes were a plain shade of blue. I didn't find him incredibly attractive as far as humans go, but it's hard to look your best when you've got no fur. I felt pretty confident that I could recognize him again if I saw him even though I sometimes had trouble telling humans apart. I needed to find a way to repay the favor of saving my life.

He left the room without saying another word. But now I found myself stuck in this cage that didn't even belong to me. Chances were good that there was another hamster in here, the one that the human mistook me for and that actually didn't escape. The was a mini hamster-house in the corner, and I silently crept up to it to. I peered inside. Sure enough, there was another hamster sleeping inside. I would have to be quiet if I didn't want to disturb him, as the last thing I needed was to get yelled at by a stranger for trespassing. As if I hadn't gotten in enough trouble today. I sighed. I felt a bit tired after everything that had happened, coupled with my lack of sleep last night. Before I even realized it I fell asleep in the corner of the cage in a pile of fluff.

I blinked my eyes a few times and woke up a while later. I hadn't meant to fall asleep, but I couldn't help it. I glanced at the clock on the wall. 10:58. Not good! I'd been away from the ham-hams for over an hour. Of course they would notice me missing by now. Maxwell must be worried sick. I was about to rush out the cage door when I remembered the second hamster that was still sleeping. I was lucky he didn't wake up while I was in there. I was also glad that his real owner didn't come to check on him while I was there. Anyway, I tiptoed myself over to the door of the cage and tried to open it without making a noise. Success! The hamster in the cage didn't wake up. Now I needed to focus my attention on finding the ham-hams.

Then I heard a ring as I dropped down the side of the table. I made my way over to the door and slipped under it. Looks like I should have really been paying closer attention, as the ring I heard earlier was the class bell and I just about slid right into the middle of the traffic before a massive sneaker clomped right in front of me. That could have just about been the second time I died today. Yep, I think I'd had enough adventures for a while. I backed up against the wall so I wouldn't be flattened into a hamcake. Finally, the 5 minute passing time had ended and I was free to go look for the ham-hams. But in this huge school, who knows how long that would take?

I walked around the school for another 20 minutes. It looked pretty hopeless. At this point I was almost ready to leave and walk all the way home by myself, which would have been extremely disappointing, and Maxwell wouldn't be very happy with me. But then my ears picked up a familiar voice down the hallway.

"Sandy? Saaaandyyyy?" It was a southern accent. Had to be Howdy.

"I'm here! Over here!" I called back. I began to run in the direction of his voice.

"Sandy? Ah, finally! We've been looking for you forever!" he said as he ran towards me, Dexter followed close behind. "What happened to you?"

I paused for a moment. "...Tell you later. Where are the others?"

"We were going to meet in front of the office in about 5 minutes," Dexter explained. "Glad we found you when we did. Everyone split up to look for you."

"C'mon, let's go meet them!" Howdy said.

We ran all the way back to the front office where we had first seen the class schedule. The trip itself took about 5 minutes since we were so far away to begin with, and all the ham-hams were there waiting for me. Both Stan and Maxwell ran up to me first.

"Sandy! My goodness, where did you go? You had us so worried!" Maxwell said first, and was interrupted by Stan.

"Yeah, what happened to you? One minute you're here and the next you're gone! You could at least give us some warning." I looked behind them and noticed that Oxnard was with them. He must not have ventured off on his own for very long. To think, all of this could have been avoided if I had just minded my own business.

"Sandy, are you aware of the dangers in this school?" Maxwell asked forcefully. Yes, I was very familiar with them. "You could have been hurt! Killed!" Yes, and I almost was. But I'm fine. "What were you doing this whole time? How did you get lost?" He didn't look very happy with me.

"What he said!"

I decided to spare some of the details. That is, almost all of them. "You see, we were passing the cooking classroom and I, like, couldn't help but notice a really delicious scent in the air. So I went on my own inside. I climbed on top of the counter to see this beautiful French silk pie, but I didn't think I should eat any. Instead, I climbed back down and left the room to meet back up with you guys. But I couldn't find you," I tried to explain. "So I spent almost the last hour looking for you guys." I didn't say anything about the two human boys lest Maxwell never let me out of his sight again.

"You were on top of the counter in that cooking class?" Maxwell asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "What if you had been seen? Did you ever think about that?" I guess I didn't when I had gone up there in the first place. I should have been smarter than that. "Who knows what some of those high school students would have done to you?" Like take me someplace safer?

"I'm fine, Maxwell. Don't worry about it." I said. I didn't expect him to be so protective. But he had every right to I guess, since I might have acted the same way if Maxwell had gotten lost.

"Alright, guys, that's enough. Sandy knows what she did was wrong, everyone makes mistakes," Boss said. "Let's head back to the clubhouse. We've had enough adventure for one day." He couldn't have been more right, in my case. It was only about 11:30 at the moment, so we would get back just in time for me and Maxwell to go have our picnic. I was a little annoyed as his possessiveness, but that would blow over. Maybe it was me who was being unreasonable.

By the time we got back to the clubhouse it was a little past noon. Everyone except Maxwell and I settled down for the afternoon for some rest. Maxwell was packing the picnic basket while I got ready to go.

"Ready to go?" Maxwell came up behind me and asked cheerfully.

"You know it!" I answered. We walked out the clubhouse door to the park after telling the other ham-hams we were leaving for the day. They probably assumed we were going on a date, and it kind of was.

Maxwell held my paw as we walked to the park together. It was just as nice as it was this morning, a sunny day with almost no wind and not a cloud in the sky. I wished every day could have been like this. Eventually we got to our destination. Maxwell set down the picnic basket and started to take out the food he prepared for the two of us. On the way here he told me he had been reading some of his cookbooks to make sure he made everything right. We began to eat. He must have read his cookbooks well, because his food was really good. Almost as good as that bit of French silk pie I had earlier, but not quite. Nothing could really top that. Let's just say "it was to die for".

We finished our lunch together after talking a laughing a while. We cleaned up together and put everything back in the picnic basket so we could go do something else. We were just going to find a shady tree and rest there together, and probably just talk about stuff some more. I always learned a lot when I had a conversation with Maxwell with his endless stream of knowledge.

We found the perfect tree and sat down together, neither of us saying a word. He leaned against the base of the tree and I rested my head on his shoulder. I closed my eyes.

But then my mind began to wander into places I've never been. I thought about things I had never even considered before. What if ... what if Maxwell _wasn't_ the right guy? And all this time I'd been just hanging out with him for nothing. Was it all infatuation? We hardly shared any interests. But opposites attract, right? Only sometimes, it seemed. I liked his quiet charm and how he wasn't loud or obnoxious like some of the other ham-hams. But sometimes I wish he was a bit more spontaneous. He wasn't the most exciting ham on the planet.

And his _possessiveness._ I had never seen that side of him before. He rarely got angry about anything unless you really pushed his buttons. Would he always be that possessive of me? I've always been a free spirit, and no one could change that. I didn't want him keeping a close eye on me all the time, I needed my space.

I thought back to my human. Sure, she kept me in a cage, but she didn't become angry when I escaped. She often took me out and let me roam around her room or even around the house for a while. She trusted I would not get into trouble. Why didn't Maxwell have that kind of trust in me? Maybe it was mostly a human trait. Hamsters tended to be too skittish and untrustworthy, not up for adventure and spontaniety at all but instead trying to hide someplace where they won't get hurt. This was the case with Maxwell, who would be perfectly content sitting in his cage for the rest of his life reading books. Even Stan, the cockiest ham-ham of the bunch, would curl up in the fetal position if he was confronted with a cat. Humans were different. They wanted to try new things, see new places, experience more. They weren't afraid of anything. I wished more hamsters would be like humans.

I didn't know too many humans very well, though. I'd never gotten the chance to meet any. It was mainly just Hillary. But I had met some of her friends, namely Noel, Laura, and Kana, and a few other girls from her age group. Oh, and the boy I met today. I didn't even get to know his name. He seemed like a nice human, though. I bet he would be more fun to be around than Maxwell. I pictured him standing in front of me again...

Wait, what was I thinking? I was trying to concentrate on my relationship with Maxwell as a boyfriend, and here I am thinking about this human boy being better. A better what? A better partner? No, it was impossible. I already had a human. And a boyfriend. Wait, what? Why was I even considering that? The boy was a human. It was impossible, if that's what my mind was going after. We weren't even the same species. It'd be weird. What would the ham-hams say? Besides, he had a newt. Reptile people didn't care for rodents, rodents were just food. Or ... what _were_ newts, anyway? I knew they looked like lizards but not much else.

"Maxwell?" I broke the silence between us.

"I'm listening," he said.

"Are newts reptiles or amphibians? Or something else?"

He paused for a moment. "...They're amphibians. Like frogs and toads. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering," I answered. "Do they eat hamsters?"

"Of course not, silly," he said. "Most of them barely get as big as us. They eat insects. Would you like to look up their entry in my encyclopedia?"

"That's okay, that's all I wanted to know," I turned down his offer as politely as I could.

Well, newts didn't sound so bad after all. The human couldn't be half bad, at least he didn't own a snake. Wait, here I go again, why did I even care what that human was like? We would probably never meet again. But I couldn't help myself from thinking about it as ridiculous as it sounded. It was only a daydream, after all. Weird stuff can happen when your mind wanders. My train of thought was disrupted when I heard Maxwell's voice.

"Sandy?" he asked me, and reached around my shoulder.

"Yes, Maxy?" I replied. I wasn't sure what he was about to say.

"I love you." My heart skipped a beat. I wasn't expecting that right then. I was sort of expecting him to tell me one of his facts about something he saw while sitting out here. Way to make me feel bad, now.

I almost didn't know what to say. My thoughts I had earlier were clouding my perception of him. Did I still love him? What do I do? Finally, I forced back the ideas in my head and responded to him. "I love you too, Maxwell." Part of me said this was the definite truth, the other half said it was an outright lie. I didn't know what to think anymore.

We were mostly silent for the rest of the time, just taking in the sights and smells of nature. I didn't feel the need to say anything to him. In fact, I kind of wanted to get home to my own human, and she would be returning soon. I stood up. "Maxwell, I think I'd better go soon. Hillary's gonna be back from work anytime and I need to be home. Sorry about that."

"It's no problem, I know how you feel. My human should be back from school soon, too," he said. I didn't feel quite so bad.

We said goodbye and took seperate ways. We didn't walk home together. The autumn air began to turn cool on my way back to Hillary's house, and a few clouds were rolling in. I had heard that there was a slight chance of snow tonight if it got cold enough, though I kind of doubted it with the warm weather we'd been having lately. I hurried back to my house before it got any colder.

I saw Hillary's car pull up right as I was climbing up the vines on the side of her house. Good thing I left when I did. I quickly got to my cage before she came in the room.

"Hi, Sandy, how've you been?" she asked as she kneeled down in front of my cage.

_"It's been a long day_." I thought. _"I got lost at school and got myself into a load of trouble. I met a boy there, too, he saved me from danger. But then Maxwell yelled at me for running off. I've been a bit frustrated with him." _I knew Hillary couldn't hear me, but I would always answer her question. She took me out of my cage and set me on the ground.

"You can go explore, if you want. I've got more stuff to work on," she told me, then walked over to her desk and sat down. I decided not to bother her. At least she was allowing me my freedom. Instead of taking the opportunity to go wherever, I decided to just spend time with Hillary. I scratched the leg of her chair to get her attention and she gladly picked me up. I fell asleep in her lap that night.

* * *

To be continued~ Please review!

In other news, my catfish makes buzzing noises.


	3. The burning flame

Chapter 3

Got the motivation to update olololol.

* * *

I woke up back in my cage that morning. Hillary must have returned me there last night when she went to bed. I must've woken up earlier that morning, because Hillary was just getting ready for class when I got up. Most of the time I was still sleeping when she left unless she woke me up to say goodbye. I yawned and stretched myself out on my bedding. Hillary must have heard the rustling because she came over to my cage and said good morning.

She left for the day as I was still trying to wake myself up. I wish I had slept a little longer. It felt like any other morning until I was suddenly reminded of Maxwell. I felt an anxious nausea just thinking about it. I couldn't possibly break off from him, but my mind continued to tell me otherwise. I tried to convince myself otherwise. It wasn't him, it was just me that was making a big huge deal out of it. There was nothing wrong with Maxwell. I was just being stupid.

I pushed open my cage door with my nose and hopped out. I sighed. Things would get better today, I was just being unreasonable and moody yesterday. If only we had just stayed at the clubhouse instead of going to that darn high school. I slid down the vines onto the lawn below and began my walk to the clubhouse. The daily walk to and from there made for good exercise.

I eventually made it there. Almost everyone had made it already. And there was Maxwell, just what I needed. Everyone was there except for my brother, who fancied sleeping in most of the time. That, or he didn't have time to come, as sometimes his human only had a few classes at the college that day and it would be pointless for Stan to come if he could only stay here for a half hour. This explained his absences on certain days. As for the the ham-hams whose humans were in elementary school, they could come to the clubhouse every day because their humans had class all the time. Cappy's cage was in the shop that his humans owned, and they would notice if he went out because they spoiled him so much, so Cappy only got to come to the clubhouse on certain days. Panda's human wasn't even in school yet, she was barely 4 years old. But since she knows us, she didn't have much of a problem with him coming to see us. Dexter and Howdy's cages were in a separate room from the main shop that their humans tended to, and they were too busy during the day to notice them gone.

The girls beckoned me over to where they were sitting off in a corner. They seemed excited, which made me assume they were going to ask me about my date with Maxwell. I knew them way too well.

"Ooh, Sandy, how'd it go?" Bijou questioned.

Pashmina leaned in with her. "Was it as good as you expected?"

"Ookwee!" Penelope added. I dunno what she was going for, since she was too young to understand what was going on.

I didn't want to disappoint them, as they loved hearing about mushy romance stuff. But I also didn't want to tell another lie, as I'd gotten in the habit of doing. If I told them the truth, though, eventually it would spread to the whole clubhouse that I was losing interest in Maxwell and that was the last thing I needed. If Maxwell knew I was annoyed by him, he would not be very happy with me. But that was his whole issue, he needed to stop getting mad at me for stupid stuff. It wasn't stupid stuff, though. It was our relationship. I was getting so frustrated with myself ...

"So...?" Bijou interrupted my train of thought. I didn't know what to do yet. I'd have to lie to them.

"It ... it was great! He was just as romantic as ever," I told them. The two girls giggled. "Shh, Maxwell will hear us!"

"What did you two do at the park? Or shouldn't I ask?" Pashmina winked.

"Oh, no, it wasn't like that!" I reassured her. "We had a picnic out in the grass and rested by a tree in the park. It was really relaxing."

"Sounds like you two had fun!" Bijou said. I nodded. Suddenly, the two girls both started giggling again.

"What's up with you two?" I asked jokingly. And then I felt a paw on my shoulder.

It was Maxwell. "Hi, Sandy, how are you this morning?"

I didn't make eye contact with him but answered him anyway. "Pretty good, I guess. Tired is all." He smiled at me. It was like he was intentionally giving me the guilt trip.

"Glad to hear that!" He seemed pretty happy. "Say, the others were going to go play outside, did you want to come? I know you'd never pass up the chance. Better get out there before winter comes, right?" And he was right, I'd never say no to going outside. I liked that he knew where my interests lied. Yeah, that was a good thing about him.

We all gathered in front of the clubhouse. It was cooler out than before, but not unbearably so, since the layer of fur usually kept us warm. It was cloudy currently, and I wished the sun would come out. I saw Stan arrive just as we all got out there.

"Yo, hammies, did you miss me? We gonna play another game of acorn soccer or what?" I rolled my eyes. Sometimes just his very presence annoyed me, I couldn't explain it. It was a brother-sister thing.

"Well, what should we do, hams?" Hamtaro asked. No one was quite sure, actually.

"I've got an idea," Stan said with a finger raised. "Let's have a big race. Like, around the entire park. Winner gets bragging rights for a year."

Boss, always up for challenging Stan, thought about it for a moment. "Sure. But we'll have to set up a course. Did you have any ideas?"

"How about..." he stopped to consider for a little bit, then continued. "From the front door of the clubhouse, past the row of trees, across the creek, under the bench ..." he said as he pointed out each location. "Through the bushes, down the sidewalk, across the street-"

"Not across the street," Boss interrupted. "It wouldn't be safe. And watch out for people on the sidewalk, we don't want to be seen." I let out a sigh. Safety, safety, safety, couldn't we just have a little excitement?

"Ah, fine. Ater we get to the sidewalk then, we'll head back and go by the same obstacles. Clear?"

"Clear as day," Boss confirmed. "Now, who wants to participate?" He and Stan were for sure in on it. Me, Howdy, Dexter, Bijou and Hamtaro raised our paws.

"No thanks, we'll sit this one out," said Pashmina, followed by a small 'ookwee'.

"Me too, I'm gonna take a break today," Maxwell also said. I wished he would have participated, though, he needed the exercise beyond his whiz wheel.

"Also, we should have a _real_ prize, not just bragging rights," Dexter pointed out. "What's something we'd all like, and is something practical? A year's worth of sunflower seeds isn't something we can easily get."

"How about a picture of me? I know everyone would go for that." Stan proclaimed. I slapped my forehead.

"Actually, I'd have to disagree with that one, Stan," Dexter said. "Something simple, like 'king for the day' or something. The winner would get to boss us all around all day."

"But if Boss won, then it wouldn't really be any different, would it?" Howdy said. Boss glared at him.

"How about this," Hamtaro said, "the losers all have to bring the winner a treat from their house tomorrow. Sound fair enough?"

"Sure," answered Boss. "Now, let the games begin! Everyone line up by the clubhouse door!" he barked.

We lined up one by one in front of the pile of rocks that made up the entrance to the clubhouse. Boss went over the rules once more and we were ready to go. It was Maxwell holding the cork gun that would set us off. "Everybody ready? 3..." I got a firm grip on the dirt with my paws. "2..." I could hear the struggle between Dexter and Howdy, each one trying to hold the other back. "1..." Stan and Boss were just focused. "GO!" Maxwell shouted with the pop of the start gun. Stan and Boss were off like a freight train, myself followed close behind, and Hamtaro behind us. Not surprisingly, Dexter and Howdy tripped over themselves by the starting line. The brawl that ensued signaled to me that they were probably out of the race.

I couldn't see past the cloud of dust that Stan and Boss had kicked up, so I couldn't see who was getting ahead up there. One would assume that Boss would have the advantage, seeing as he was almost twice Stan's height and therefore had longer legs, but such didn't seem to be the case. I could hear Hamtaro behind me simply chugging along, just as adorably average as ever. I picked up speed; those treats sounded pretty good at the moment.

I finally caught a glimpse of the two maniacs as they pulled a sharp turn around the bench. Stan was just a length ahead of Boss. I was closing up on them, though. We were just about to run into the bushes before the sidewalk when ...

_"Oof!"_ I hit my foot on an exposed root and hit my chest on the ground. _"Ouchichi ..."_ I held up my lower paw and inspected it, and it looked like it wasn't at all bad. It hurt a little, but I wasn't in excruciating pain when I moved it or anything. As I stood up Boss and Stan were already rounding on their way back to the clubhouse. Well, if anything I just didn't want to end up in last place. Hamtaro was a considerable length behind me so I took my time and hopped out to the sidewalk before I would turn around. My foot burned hot.

As I turned around something familiar caught my eye down the block a way. A human with a flaming mane of red hair ... could it be? My savior from yesterday? I paused and squinted, trying to make out his features. Yes, it was him! What were the chances? He was carrying a grocery bag at his side that swung lightly with his movements as he continued on rather absent-mindedly. And he was coming in my direction. I wondered ... should I wait and greet him as he passed by? Would he see me? I needed to thank him somehow, but I didn't know how. As I pondered I heard Hamtaro scurry by me.

"Hi Sandy! Bye Sandy! Whatcha lookin' at?" he asked as he ran. I ignored him, my mind focused on other subjects. Maybe if I won the race I could give the human my treats I got as a prize ... yes! That's it! Everyone loves treats!

I snapped back into focus and saw Hamtaro skipping along past the bushes. There was _no way_ I was going to let him beat me now. No one would beat me! I shot off like a rocket, and almost instantaneously caught up to Hamtaro.

"Sandy, how'd y-AHHH!!" I barreled him over with the force of a charging 2-ton rhino. He was sent flying off the path as I continued up to Stan and Boss like a bat out of hell. They were quite a ways up ahead, but I was determined to make it there before them. I pushed my legs as hard as they could go as I made it past all of the previous obstacles. I wasn't even paying attention to anything at that point, I just wanted - no, _needed - _ to get first place. There, up ahead, I could see it. The finish line. There was no one even in front of me as I raced to the end.

"YES!" I cheered as I passed the finish line. I did it! I pumped my fist in the air to celebrate my victory. But then ...

"Geez, sis, what took ya so long?" I heard a familiar voice say. My mood shattered on the spot. There was both Boss and Stan, already sitting down to rest by the rest of the ham-hams. They got there before me ... _*sigh*_.

Even so, I wanted to know the winner. "So, who came in first?" I asked after I gathered myself up.

"Stan did, the little rat," Boss huffed. "He shoved me out of the way right before the end. Talk about playing dirty!"

"There were no rules against it, don't even complain! You could have done it to me!" Stan argued.

"Maybe I'll do it right now!" Boss stood up to challenge him, but Cappy and Panda restrained him.

Maxwell interrupted. "The race is over, and Stan won fair and sq-... well, Stan won. Boss, Sandy, Dexter, Howdy and Hamtaro all need to bring one treat tomorrow to give him as a prize. Sound good?" Stan flexed his muscles in front of the group. Boss spat on the ground in contempt. "But, speaking of Hamtaro, where did he go?" Almost on cue, a battered orange and white shape came stumbling towards the finish line.

"Sorry it took me so long guys ... I just ... I ... I don't even." Right as he crossed the line he slumped over. Everyone stared at him a moment and then resumed chatter amongst themselves. No one would need to know the details.

I looked over at Stan who was making an attempt to impress an uninterested Pashmina, and then remembered my original plan. The human! I wondered if Stan would let me borrow some of those? I'd go find my own in Hillary's room but like, the bag was sealed shut. I got one treat a night, so I could give the human that, but one wouldn't be nearly enough. I would need a lot, since a human would eat a lot more than a hamster could. I walked up to Stan once Pashmina abandoned him.

"Hey bro," I waved at him.

"What do you want, my snail of a sister?" I learned to disregard his quips.

"Just wondering if I could, like, have some of your treats tomorrow. You know, since I'm your sister and all." I smiled sweetly.

Stan merely scoffed. "Pssh, like whatever! I won, and you didn't. Try harder next time if you want some," he said as he folded his arms. I felt a little angry at his turn-down but bottled it up. We were quiet for a few moments after that; I didn't know what to say. I wanted to bring up the boy again. Maybe Stan knew something I didn't?

"Say, Stan," I started, "Have you seen a human boy with red hair around here before? Like, kinda tall-ish?"

Stan looked up at me. "All humans are tall, you're gonna have to be more specific than that."

"Well ..." I thought for a moment. "I dunno. But he has freckles, too, I think."

"Are you talking about Roberto? Because that's the only red-haired kid I know. And what do you care, the guy's kind of a jerk." Sadly enough, Roberto's and Stan's personalities were next to identical, but I wasn't about to tell him that. If a hamster's personality always matched their owner's, then Stan would be Roberto's hamster.

"No, not Roberto. A different human." I had trouble describing. If only all humans didn't look alike!

"What are you asking me for, anyway?" Stan questioned. Now I _really _didn't know what to say. I shouldn't have even brought it up.

"I just ... I saw him at school yesterday. And he seemed kinda nice."

Stan eyed me suspiciously. "So? A lot of students seemed 'kinda nice'. What's the significance?" I just wanted to end the conversation.

"Nothing, just ... nevermind." My ears drooped. I would probably never even see the boy again.

Stan touched my shoulder as I turned away. "Sandy ..." he said, "You're acting weird. Whatever you're hiding from me, I'm gonna get it out of you sooner or later."

"Hiding something? I'm not hiding anything." I retorted. I shook his paw off my shoulder and trudged off towards home. I didn't want to be here any longer, there was nothing to do.

As I walked home, I thought again about what I had told Stan. _Was_ I actually hiding anything? Why should I need to hide the fact that I want to repay that human again? Of course, it was so that the ham-hams didn't find out that I got myself into a load of trouble yesterday. But no, it felt like something more than just that. Somehow, I felt guilty, but I didn't know the cause.

* * *

I laid down on the bedding in my cage that night and watched Hillary finish chores about the house. As my eyes followed her lazily around the room, my mind drifted towards Maxwell. I had barely even thought about him that day. Was I truly losing interest? Just the thought crossing my mind made me feel nauseous. What went wrong? We were perfect for each other ... or so it seemed.

When Hillary finished, she walked up to my cage and lifted me out. She greeted me with a warm smile, but for some reason I felt a little annoyed at being bothered today. I guess I just didn't feel like being around her today. She held me close to her and petted my fur. Maybe I just didn't want to be around _anyone_ today. But no ... I could think of one person. It was the boy.

I froze in thought. Why him?

As Hillary set me cage in my cage I began to go over it again. Of all the hamsters and people I know ... what was up with me? I began to sweat, my heart rate picked up. I visualized myself in his warm hands ... I held my paws up to my cheeks as my eyebrows were drawn into a worried expression.

Could I possibly be _infatuated_ with this human?

* * *

Curveball~ ohohoho


	4. Coffee break

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 already? wut. This one's the shortest yet, too. :C I'm trying to keep it to like one chapter per day in the story.

Also, if there's any phantom w's in here, please disregard them lol. My "w" key is really sensitive so sometimes I'll get words like "wwhwat?" That and I'm using Wordpad with no spellchecker. D:

* * *

I didn't hardly a wink that night and I felt horrible the next morning. I laid on my back in the middle of the cage the whole time, the gears in my mind turning at full tilt. My stomach was in knots. I felt so confused about everything. It felt so wrong ... but I couldn't seem to help myself. I felt tears form in my eyes again as well as the lump in my throat when I tried to stop myself from crying.

I needed to be strong. There was nothing to cry about. I'd probably be over him just as fast. "Over him?" It sounded like I was in a relationship with him already ... the thought. It was so incredibly taboo, and perhaps that was part of the draw. I had never been one to settle for the average, the mundane anyway. And it seemed that with Maxwell that's exactly what I had done. Maxwell was the epitome of mundane. What did I see in him to begin with?

I sat up and wiped my eyes dry. I was totally over Maxwell, and that was that. But I had no idea how to break the news to him - he would be devastated. And so would the girls at the clubhouse, and basically everyone else. We were the most stable couple there, or actually the only real couple. If me and Maxwell were broken up, things would for sure get really awkward. What would happen if, since we weren't a couple, we started to actually _hate_ each other? And then the clubhouse would be divided ... one of us might have to leave it it got to that point ... no. I couldn't do it. I would continue to feign interest in Maxwell until I was totally over the boy, and then things would be normal again. "Normal", which is exactly what I wasn't interested in. I sighed.

The boy. I wanted to know his name. That's all I wanted, nothing more. And then I would forget all of this ever happened.

The sun's rays peaked through the blinds into my cage. Hillary should be waking up soon. I burrowed back into my soft bedding to get away from the sunlight, the bright light giving me a bit of a headache from lack of sleep last night. There I finally fell asleep for about 10 minutes until Hillary's alarm went off. I silently cursed the annoying device, all it was good for was making noise and everyone hated it anyway, especially me. Gosh, I was in a sour mood this morning. I kind of wished I could sneak a drink of Hillary's coffee before heading off to the clubhouse, at least it could give me a little jolt.

Before leaving for wherever she was going this morning, she kneeled in front of my cage to say something. What was that? Hurr. I was so tired I couldn't even think. My eyes blinked slowly one at a time as Hillary said "Hey, sleepy-head! Have a good day while I'm gone." Yes, I was fully aware that I sleepy, thanks.

I figured I should at least make an attempt to go to the clubhouse, lest anyone worry about me. Stan already knew something was up, which wasn't good. Hopefully I wouldn't fall asleep in the middle of crossing the road.

* * *

I did finally make it to the clubhouse, and the physical activity woke me up a little. All I needed was to get out of my cage, it seemed. Still, I feared if I sat down at the round table for any amount of time, I might pass out. I quietly walked up to Dexter who was making tea and asked if he could make some coffee for me. Non-decaf.

"Coffee? But you hate coffee," he said when I asked him. Well, it was true, but I needed the caffeine.

"I need something to wake me up. Had a long night," I explained without giving too many details. He shrugged and started a small pot. Usually only Boss ever drank the coffee, so I hoped he wouldn't mind if I borrowed some. I went and sat down next to Stan at the table (who was here unusually early, mind you) and Dexter brought over my cup when he was finished.

Stan hiffed the air for moment as I took a sip. "What is that? Coffee? Sick."

"Mind your own business, bro," I told him. He stuck out his tongue. Just a few moments later Maxwell came and joined us, followed by the rest of the hamsters soon after.

"Hiff hiff ... Sandy, you're drinking coffee? An interesting change in beverage, nice to see you're experimenting with new tastes!" Maxwell commented. Sheesh, was I that predictable that everyone has to make a big deal out of one little change?

I was woken up a little bit by the joly of energy in my drink but I was still a little out of the loop. I wasn't paying attention for most of the conversation at the table and to be honest I don't remember what they were talking about. In a little bit, everyone started to go off and do their own thing, and I stayed at the table. I was resting my head in my hands when Maxwell walked up to me. Oh dear.

"Hi Sandy," he said, sweet as ever.

I exhaled silently. "Hi Maxwell."

"You're awfully quiet today, anything the matter?" he asked, looking slightly concerned.

"Nothing, just tired is all," I said. That was all I was going to reveal.

He cocked his head. "You sure? Your nose looks a little pale." He felt my forehead. His paw was cold.

He was really gonna pull this out of me, wasn't he? I was horrible at keeping secrets. "I ... I was up late. Just thinking about things."

"What kind of things?" he asked.

"Nothing ... nothing important. I had a bit of a bad dream last night that kept me awake. It was ... it was about cats." If by 'cats' you mean Maxwell and the human, then I was totally telling the truth.

"That's all, huh?" he said. "Don't worry about it. Remember, just because you thought about it doesn't mean it's going to happen."

I nodded. "Thanks."

He turned and looked me right in the eyes with a bright smile on his face. "But regardless, I was just wondering if, say, maybe you wanted to come eat lunch with me again today." My heart practically stopped. I felt awful turning him down, but ...

"I'm not really hungry today. I'm sorry, Max." He didn't know what to say. I suppose it was a bit of a rejection. "Maybe another day."

"I ... okay then, I suppose." He looked down at his feet. "Just tell me ... if you feel like it." He turned and noticeably sulked away. That feeling in the pit of my stomach grew again. What had I done? I conked my head down on the table. Boss came up and startled me soon after.

"Hey, Sandy, if you're tired you can sleep in the spare room upstairs. I've got some shredded up newspaper for you to lay on. I can have Stan wake you up before he leaves."

"Thanks, Boss." I slowly got up from my stool and moved up to the bedroom. I walked inside and closed the door behind me. Inside was exactly what Boss had said, just a pile of shredded newspapers, since he loved to sleep in them. The other feature of the room was a small hole in the wall that let in just a little bit of light and some cold air. It felt good to curl up and sleep.

* * *

"Sandy."

"..."

"Sandy, wake up."

I felt someone grab my shoulders and shake violently. "Hey ... HEY! Alright, I'm up! I'm up!" I opened my eyes to reveal Stan standing in front of me.

"Jeez, you've been sleeping all day! Are you sick or something? Maybe you should've stayed home," he said.

"I'm fine, thank you." I brushed him off and began to walk towards the door when I heard him say something behind me.

"And hey, by the way ..." he started, "... I saw you turn down Maxwell today. That's not like you," he said with a stern tone of voice.

"It's none of your business, Stan."

"Why did you do it? You'd never reject an offer from Maxwell."

"I'm not talking to you." I turned away from him and put my paw on the doorknob when Stan grabbed me by the wrist and blocked my path.

"Look, sis, I know something is up. You can't hide it any more." I couldn't look him in the eye. "What's going on?"

"I ..." Tears began to well up in my eyes. I hated facing him like that.

"I'm not letting you go until you tell me the truth. The real truth," he told me. I couldn't hide it anymore. I had to reveal my secret.

"Fine," I began. "I ... I kind of ..." my eyes shifted around. "I kind of like _someone else._" Stan raised his eyebrows.

"Someone else? Who is it?" he questioned. I shushed him so no one would hear us, but with the door closed no one should have anyways. "Please don't tell me it's Hamtaro. Or Boss. Actually, anyone in this clubhouse for that matter, I might just have to kill you," he whispered.

"No, it's not like that. They're not in the clubhouse," I said. Oh, what was I getting myself into?

"Oh, good. But what's wrong with Maxwell? Didn't you two love each other like two days ago? And who's the new ham?" Stan asked.

I looked away from him again. "Er, it's not a 'ham', per se ..."

"Oh man. Is it a ham_ette_? If it is, I mean, that's totally fine. It's cool. I like girls, too," he said a bit uneasily.

"No, not like that, either," I explained. "It's uhh ... not exactly a hamster." Stan paused and gave me a baffled look.

"So you're gonna go all Sabu on us and have a bird as a boyfriend or something? Or a gerbil? Nasty. That's getting kinda weird, you know." I knew he wouldn't be understanding. "Who's this crush, then?"

This was it. He would either have to take it or leave it. "Okay, I'll tell you, but you can't tell _anyone_. Not Boss, not Maxwell, _no one_."

Stan nodded, but eyed me suspiciously. "Go on ..." I breathed in deeply.

"I like ... a human."

Stan's mental processes practically screeched to a halt. He stalled for a moment and then said, "Right. Nah dude, tell me you're kidding, right?"

I gave him a serious face, and I could see his mood dissolving before my eyes.

"Sandy, what the hell?" he began to look angry with me now. "A human? What are you _thinking?_"

"Please be quiet, Stan!" I told him.

"I can't even believe you! You really think that would work?" He held his paws up to his forehead. "It's impossible! Totally ridiculous! Humans are just friends, that's it! They're nice to you because they have to be!"

I stayed silent. I could hardly counter him at this point.

"How would you expect to even be with him at all? You couldn't even talk to each other-"

"He could talk to me," I interrupted, "and I could write notes or somethi-"

"Get real! It'd never work, hamsters can't talk to humans. And say goodbye to intimacy like what you've got with Maxwell, or any other normal boyfriend for that matter. He's only, what, 100 times bigger than you? Kissing? Gross! And don't even get me started on-"

"Stan!" I butted in. "It's not like that, you don't understa-"

"You wouldn't stand a chance!" he continued on his angry tirade. "You've got nothing, just give up!"

"You don't get it, Stan! You have no idea what I'm going through!" I retorted, but my voice was cracking.

"Sandy, I can't believe you're even considering this relationship at _all!_ What has gotten into you?"

"Just ... just don't talk to me! You're the worst brother ever!" With that, I rushed out of the room and out of the clubhouse without looking up once. I didn't want to be around anyone. They just didn't get it. I was hurt by the argument, and I knew a confession would only cause problems. Now I could only hope he wouldn't tell anyone, and with his big mouth, I was sure he would.

And I still didn't find out the human's name. The only way I'd see him again would be to probably wait by the sidewalk where I saw him yesterday, or go back to the school again. And I hoped I didn't have to do the latter.

That night, I didn't want to see anyone. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't even want to be around Hillary. I headed straight for home and hid in my mini house so she wouldn't bother me. Though when she got home, I did hear her approach and say my name, but she didn't pick me up as usual. I fell asleep pretty quickly that night, which was a relief. Tomorrow I was going to skip the clubhouse and find the boy again, regardless of what my brother or anyone else thought about it.

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GRATUITOUS PAGE BREAKS!


	5. Between a rock and a hard place

Chapter 5

There is nothing to say here. Good day, sir! *monocle wiggle*

Actually I've had writer's block. I hit the middle of the chapter and was like, "what." This should have been done a month ago. Sandy's a big ol' creeper.

* * *

Ahh, the normal night of sleep felt good for once. I stretched and yawned, pushing aside my bedding in the process. It was Friday today, finally. The weekend coming up meant that I wasn't obligated to go to the clubhouse for once, since most of our humans were at home for a good portion of the day on weekends. It actually felt a bit weird to not want to go there, because usually I really looked forward to it. But I just wasn't feeling it lately, I had too much on my platter.

Hillary was up and getting ready for work that morning, she had no class on Fridays at the college. I was glad she usually had work today otherwise I'd be away from the clubhouse for three days instead of two. But still, I was planning on skipping out on the clubhouse today to initiate my plan of repaying the human for saving me. That was it, I was repaying the favor and nothing more, I convinced myself. I assumed it couldn't be too hard, since as a high school student he would have school every day of the week. That would mean he would have to be at the high school. But I didn't really want to venture into the building, lest I get into trouble again. I hoped that I could find him on his way there.

The first and only place that came to mind was the sidewalk by the edge of the bushes where we turned around in the race we had at the clubhouse two days ago. It was late in the afternoon then, so maybe he was walking home from school? That meant he must use that path to walk to school, too. Maybe I could wait in the bushes there, then come out and greet him. Nah, that wouldn't work. He probably wouldn't see me. Maybe if he walked past I could just follow him to wherever he was going. I would have to make sure that none of the ham-hams saw me hiding out in the bush, though. That, and I'd have to get there quickly so I wouldn't miss him, since I didn't know what time school started. It might be a long wait.

I waited for Hillary to finish up getting ready, and she finally walked out the door. She didn't say anything to me this morning, either because I was asleep when she came over or she just plain forgot. Either way, it was time for me to go. I headed for the window and scaled down the vines on the side of the house. I hurried over to the bushes by the sidewalk that was near the clubhouse, keeping an eye out for any other ham-hams who might have been on there way there this morning. All they needed to know was that my human was "sick" and I was staying home.

I staked out my spot under the bush, covering myself in leaves just enough so that no one would be able to see me but I would be able to see out. The leaves doubled as makeshift blankets because it was really cold out this morning. There I sat and waited.

An hour had passed and no sign of the boy. I was awfully disappointed, not to mention freezing. My nose was running and I sniffled a little bit. I would wait it out here for another hour, just in case, because I was determined to see the boy today. I looked around to make sure no one was near, then ruffled up some more leaves around me for warmth.

Another half hour. No sign of the red-haired human anywhere, although I had seen plenty of other humans go past. I sneezed. It wasn't getting any warmer. A few minutes later I heard some small footsteps come not from the sidewalk but from the grassy side of the bushes. It couldn't be a human. My eyes looked in the direction of the movement, I was careful not to turn my head in case I alerted the being of my presence. From my leaf pile and beyond the branches, I could make out a pair of brown ears above a green head. Green? That couldn't be right. I focused more and discovered the green was of a knit cap. It was Cappy. Better, I thought, than seeing Stan or Maxwell (but then, what were the chances), but I'd rather have no ham-ham here at all. I maintained complete stillness as the hamster moved closer.

I felt a tickle inside my nose. Uh oh, I had to sneeze. I tried twitching my nose in an attempt to get rid of the itch, but I couldn't shake it off. The footsteps grew closer and closer, and my nose kept running. Finally, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I sneezed as quietly as I could, plugging my nose. Unfortunately, it wasn't as quiet as I had hoped.

*hehtch-PTHMMPH!!* Of course, Cappy immediately heard it and just about jumped out of his hat at the noise, not expecting anyone waiting there. He stumbled back and called out shakily, "Who's there? Sh-show yourself!!" as he half pulled his hat over his eyes.

"It's just me! Don't worry!" I answered quickly as I threw off my leaves. Cappy recognized my voice.

"Sandy! It's you! We were wondering where you were," he said as he calmed down. "What are you doing in here?"

"... Just people-watching, that's all. I wanted a little changeup in my routine," I said. It was basically what I had been doing, anyway. "Say, new hat?"

Cappy blushed at the comment. "Yeah, Kip and Sue just made it and gave it to me. Isn't it cool?" He took it off and showed it to me. It looked awfully warm, I wish I could have been wearing it. I sniffled again.

"Yeah, it's nice!" I told him. "And where are you headed, Cappy?"

"Home, I didn't feel like spending much time at the clubhouse today. I think I want to be with my humans at the store today, they're decorating for Thanksgiving." Finally, someone who shared my ideas somewhat.

"Cool, I was thinking of going back home, too."

Cappy paused for a moment. "Are you sure? Stan said he wanted to talk to you. You might want to go see him." I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Next time you see him, tell him I don't want to talk to him. Just ... it's a long story, kinda." Cappy nodded, and didn't ask any questions.

"Okay. I'm gonna go now, bye Sandy!" he waved goodbye. I waved back. Now the question was: Do I stay here all day, or do I go try and hunt down the human in the high school? I didn't want to do that. I mean, I really, REALLY, didn't want to do that. It was going to be a last resort only. The other choice was, maybe, waiting _outside_ of the high school for him to walk out the door. Yeah, that didn't sound so bad. And chances were good that I wouldn't see any of the ham-hams there, either. Even though my encounter with Cappy was pretty uneventful, I didn't want to chance meeting up with one of the less innocent, more "gossipy" hamsters, no offense.

But did I want to spend all day waiting for him there? I considered my alternatives. Yeah, I did. I started heading over there. It was about 11:00 am now, I guessed, and it was going to take me about an hour to walk all the way over to the school. And maybe I could find a soft cloth or fabric to wrap myself up in, in the meantime.

A hour and lots of walking later, I had made it to the outside of the high school that we had so fatefully ventured into a few days earlier. I didn't find anything to wrap up in, but the walk itself warmed me up. I climbed up one of the taller trees outside of the door to get a good vantage point. To my right I could see the doors to get inside the building, and to my left was the large parking lot for all the students' cars. Now I would have to wait for ... oh, 3 hours. I sighed. But there was no other way. Man, if he wasn't even in school that day I was going to be ticked.

I sat and waited on one of the thicker branches. There was no activity save for the occasional student or older person walking through the door out to their car. It was windy up in the tree, so I plucked off the nearest leaf and covered myself with it like I had done earlier. Much better. I laid down on my stomach and continued to keep a lookout.

...

I opened my eyes and peered around lazily. Oh no, I'd fallen asleep! I quickly jolted up and scanned the area. From what I could see the sun didn't move very far, so I hoped not much time had passed. If I missed the boy I would be super angry with myself. I sat upright now, vowing not to lay down again or else I'd probably take another cat nap.

More time passed. Suddenly, I saw about 2 or 3 students walk through the front doors. Then more. Then even more, followed by a huge rush of people. This was it, class must have ended! I watched carefully, trying to pick out the one human I was looking for. It was hard to try and identify him out of the crowd, because like I said I wasn't the best telling humans apart most of the time. After what seemed like hundreds of students later, there was still no sign of him. I was getting awfully nervous. I did see one person that resembled him and almost climbed down the tree to chase him down, but then realized it wasn't the right guy.

Finally, as the crowd was thinning out, I saw the boy. It HAD to be him. I double-checked, squinting my eyes just to be sure. Yes, he was the one! A giddy smile appeared on my face as I scaled down the tree trunk to follow the boy to his car, if he had one.

I darted through the grass on the lawn so no other humans would see me as I followed my target. For all they knew, I was a squirrel. It looked like he was heading in a specific direction, so I assumed he had a car to go to. It was hard keeping up to him, seeing as humans have much longer legs than us hamsters. As I was panting and running he finally stopped at a silver vehicle and was digging his keys out to unlock his door, I assumed. This gave me just enough time to catch up. I couldn't believe I was seeing him again! I stopped just at the bottom of his jeans and anticipated him opening the door. But wait, then what? I hadn't planned this far! Was I just going to jump in with him? Where would he take me?

I only had a split second to think and ran up the leg of his pants as soon as I heard the car door click open, seeing as I couldn't reach to jump into the car from ground level. I was going to grab onto his backpack and stay hidden in one of the pockets, but as I stretched my arm out he took his backpack off and casually tossed it onto the passenger seat. With nowhere to go, I jumped off, landing right on the edge of the driver's seat, and before I could react he sat down. I was just fine, but rather smooshed between his back and the backrest. I certainly had a plethora of bright ideas. And yes, "plethora" is a word I picked up from Maxwell.

I heard the car start. I tried not to move a muscle, praying that he wouldn't find me, but it became apparent to me that he couldn't feel me at all. There I had to wait, and in the meantime I had to think up a plan for what to do when he reached his destination. Luckily for me, in the middle of the drive he slouched down a bit in his seat, giving me just enough room to slide out from behind him carefully. I lowered myself into the space between the driver's seat and the door. I would need to quickly get out as soon as he did, or else I'd be stuck in his car all night with no food or water. As I sat I thought about how nice it must be for humans to have cars, what would take a hamster hours to walk would take them minutes.

I could sense we were turning into a driveway once I lurched to one side and suddenly forward, accidentally banging my head on a lever that was right next to the seat. Ouchi-chi. I ignored the pain just long enough to remember to get out of the car when they boy did. I hopped out and hid behind the wheel of the car. As I was turned away from the human, I heard a voice call out.

"Hey! Roscoe!" the human yelled followed immediately by a whistle and the telltale clicking of claws on the cement. I looked back over to see who had greeted him at the front of the house. There, in front of my eyes, was a dog up on his hind legs licking the human all over his face. I mean, it was a _big_ dog. A rottweiler. Oh dude, I could have wet myself on the spot. I was not expecting Dogzilla to be guarding the front door. That thing was nearly as tall as the boy himself. "Hey Roscoe-o-o-o! Who's been a good boy?" The dog wagged its tail even faster in response to being talked to.

As I took another glance, the dog looked as happy and friendly as he could get, but I wasn't really in the mood to chance it at that time. A dog like that could eat me whole without a second thought, and the last thing I wanted to be was dinner.

I watched as "Roscoe" followed the human into the house obediently. I had no desire to follow with that beast around him. All that work today and I blew my chances. At least I knew where he lived now. I scanned the area to see if I recognized anything that told me where I was in relation to my own house. It looked as though I actually wasn't very far from my place, well within walking distance, since I did recognize my surroundings somewhat. I think it must have been a neighborhood that Hillary and I passed when walking to the store for a quick trip. It must have been about 3:30 now, I guessed, which gave me enough time to walk home before Hillary got back at 5:00. I would need to return to the boy's house one night when the dog would be sleeping.

So there I began my journey back to my own house. It had been another long day, one of many this past week. All this adventure was slowly taking its toll, and I was worn out.

I slowly ambled my way home until I could see the house in my view. I could also spot Hillary's car. Ahh!! Her car in the driveway meant she way home already! I began on a dead sprint, hoping that my owner hadn't discovered me missing yet.

I rounded by the corner of the yard and made it up the vines as fast as I could muster. There I nudged my way into her bedroom, only to find it completely dark and untouched. Phew. I had panicked for nothing. There was nothing else I needed to do, so I clambered into my cage and kept to myself for the rest of the night.

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Read and review my bff jills


	6. Explorer

Chapter 6

This should have been written weeks ago. D:

Also, writing about stuff from a hamster's perspective is super fun. This chapter's uber long, but I really enjoyed it.

* * *

I woke up that morning to the warmth of the sun's rays shining into my cage. Today was a Saturday, meaning I finally wasn't obliged to go to the clubhouse. Hopefully Cappy hadn't told any of the others about our conversation, or I'd probably have the ham-hams after me all weekend. Especially Stan, since Cappy had mentioned that he had been looking for me … eh, I'd try and avoid him until this all blew over.

Hillary was sleeping in, meaning I could basically do whatever I wanted for the next hour or so, but I didn't really want to do anything just yet. I was going back to the boy's house tonight. That way, while everyone is sleeping, they wouldn't suspect a thing. I still hadn't thought as far as what I would do when I actually got there. Either way, I was in no hurry this morning. I laid back down on my belly and exhaled.

I must have had drifted off again because I woke up to Hillary putting some food in my cage and refilling my water bottle. I then watched her sleepily head downstairs in her pajamas. As soon as she left I packed a bunch of seeds in my cheeks and began to nibble away at them one by one. Saturdays were great for being super lazy. After all the seeds I ate I decided to go for a long run on my whiz-wheel. I hadn't even touched it for almost the whole week.

Afternoon came quickly, and I hadn't really been any more productive than in the morning. I was laying with my handpaws behind my head, daydreaming peacefully. I was feeling awfully relaxed – this day seemed to be just what I needed. I closed my eyes for just a moment when I heard a slight tapping noise at the window of the bedroom.

"Hmm?" I looked up. I couldn't see anyone after a few seconds, so I resumed my daydream. The tapping came again, slightly louder.

"Ugghh …" I moaned as I sat up, squinting my eyes to the bright light from the window. Maybe it was my angle that made me not able to see what was up there. The window suddenly appeared to be slowly opening by itself. If it weren't for hearing a familiar grunting I would have been a little alarmed. I could see the figure standing on top of the ledge, scanning the room with his hands on his hips. He struggled to close the window behind himself.

Looks like Stan had come to hunt me down. What did he want? I quickly scooted into my hamster house and out of his sight, though I knew it wouldn't really stop him from getting to me. I heard some indistinct noises coming from outside before my cage door rattled.

"Hey! You in there?" Stan asked obnoxiously. I didn't answer. "Sandy, if you're in there, and you don't answer, I'm just gonna bust right in!" Why would I care? I wasn't doing anything wrong.

He waited a few seconds, then slid the door open and hopped in. I could hear the bedding shuffling and it stopped at the entrance to my hamster house. He didn't say a word, so I assumed he was confused as to what he should do.

"What do you want, Stan?" I called out sharply. I think a part of him must not have expected anyone to be home because I heard him jump.

"Sandy! Why wouldn't you answer me?" he said.

"Oh, no reason. You know, we just had a big fight and haven't talked for a few days," I told him. I furrowed my brow, and the memory of the argument came rushing vividly back.

"_Just … just don't talk to me! You're the worst brother ever!"_

"Well sorry!" he answered. "I just wanted to make up, you know." He would have to really make a good case because I was still ticked at him. "Can I come in?"

"No," I said firmly. Stan shifted awkwardly. There was silence for a few seconds before he gained the courage to speak again.

"I'm just gonna tell you this, though, sis." I listened intently. "I am your brother. And I just want what's best for you. Your safety is important to me."

Stan was almost never serious, so he almost sounded like a different hamster. I knew that he was very protective of me, though, and I had to give him some credit for it. But everyone always seemed to be concerned about my safety when I needed it least.

"... Thanks, I guess."

He continued. "Look. Please don't get mad at me, but seriously, going after a human is just totally unreasonable. You don't 'like' him. You just _think_ you do. You're obsessed."

"Oh, aren't you one to talk, Mr. Casanova." I rolled my eyes. He groaned.

"Sandy, are we even on the same page? I go after ham-babes, which are, by the way, my _own species. _Your situation is in a totally different category. He doesn't even know who you are."

"Yes he does. We met."

"_No he doesn't!_ You didn't exchange greetings, he just found you! It was all by chance that you even crossed paths."

"Isn't that how most relationships start, onii-chan?" Now I had him.

"Sandy, you're just being stubborn, and you know it!" He grumbled. "Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?"

"Leave me alone, Stan! You're just making things worse!"

"Fine!" he retorted. He kicked the ladder leading up to my hamster house and cursed. "I came all the way out here to listen to you being ridiculous! Thanks!" I curled up into the corner, my mood quickly soured. Stan was on his way out the door.

"Oh, and by the way_ Sandy,_" he said my name with obvious emphasis, "Maxwell said your relationship's on hold. You two are kinda over unless you clean up your act." My heart stopped.

"Stan, wait! What did-"

"You said you didn't want to talk to me, sis! Goodbye!" He walked out without another word.

Deep down, I felt like I had already broken up with him, but somehow I wasn't quite ready for hearing it actually confirmed. I pressed my back to the wall in the dark enclosure and sobbed.

* * *

Night had come finally. I had stopped crying and had my head poking out of the hamster house when Hillary walked in. Credit to Stan for ruining the whole day. The only thing that I felt could redeem it now was a visit to the boy's house, at least it would take my mind off of Stan and Maxwell.

As Hillary got ready for bed she bumped my cage by accident, startling me and making my shoulder scrape somewhat harshly against the entrance to the hamster house. Clumsy human, I glared at her angrily.

When she was just about to go to bed she kneeled in front of my cage and put her hand in to try and pick me up. I was having none of it. I retreated back and gave a small warning hiss, and she drew back her hand swiftly.

"What's up with you, Sandy? It's not like you to hiss..." She seemed a bit disappointed. Now I'd really done it. She walked away, leaving me alone.

I don't know what had gotten into myself. I had never shown any aggression to my human before. Now she was probably mad at me, too. I was really just blowing everything for myself. I wished that I could just go back in time one week and completely start over.

My human finally climbed into bed. The room was dark. It was almost time for my plan to be put into action. I waited for her breathing to become slower and heavier, and then I knew she was asleep and wouldn't hear me get out. I silently escaped out my cage and through the window. I hadn't been out all day.

I remembered exactly the direction I had traveled to get to my house from the boy's house, and I began to walk because it would take me a little bit to get there. There were no other people outside, so I could safely walk on the sidewalk without being seen. As I approached the area that his house was in, I scanned all of the houses to make sure I was going to the right one. A lot of the houses in the area looked alike, and it didn't help that it was dark outside. I finally saw one with a silver car in the driveway. It had to be the right one.

I scampered over to the walkway near the front door. A plan on how to actually get in the house hadn't even crossed my mind. There was no crack under the door, it was completely sealed, so I wouldn't be able to squeeze under it. It didn't look as thought the windows opened as easily as the ones in Hillary's house, either. I was in a predicament. I made my way to the backyard and began to search the outside of the house for some small hole that I could get in through.

Finally, as I looked up to the deck, I could see a large dog door that had to lead inside. I hurried up to it and pushed my way in. There were two flaps to it for a reason that I wasn't sure of. Either way, I was in. It was my first victory.

Then I realized I had put my guard down. Lying about five feet away was the dog itself, breathing heavily as it slept. I was lucky it wasn't awake, but I would have to be careful not to disturb it. It didn't look very friendly.

I walked around on the tile floor for a little while, just taking in my surroundings. It looked like I was in the kitchen, and there was a dim light from above the oven partially illuminating the room. I would need to explore the hallways and figure out where the boy's room was. I assumed his parents would be home, too, so I would need to avoid them, too.

I was still looking around when I heard a deep sigh and a snort come from behind me. I froze.

The dog.

It was too late, as I knew it had already seen me. I was right in its field of view. It was no use running, or I'd attract attention, so I stayed as calm as possible and hoped for the best. I swallowed hard.

The dog's bulky front paws surrounded me on both sides, and it lowered its head towards me. It put its large black nose right up to me and began to sniff rapidly. It was a it uncomfortable, to say the least. It nudged me forward a bit, then lifted its head and looked at me. I didn't dare turn around. The dog brought its head down once more and circled in front of me. It sniffed for just a second more, then opened its huge mouth. I closed my eyes and held my breath. But instead of eating me, the dog just licked me from my paws to my head with one slurp of its tongue which was bigger than myself. I lost my balance and tipped over from the force of it. I shivered.

The dog drew back and licked its nose with a wet smack, then came back at me. Instead of taking it again I stumbled backwards away from the dog, and it paused and tilted its head at the sudden movement. It looked like it might not hurt me after all. But still, I was covered in sticky dog spit, and I needed to find a way to wash it off before searching for the boy. The dog continued to stare at me curiously as I walked in circles trying to think of something. I walked away from it and climbed up to a towel sitting on the kitchen counter to dry myself off. It wouldn't fix the dog breath smell, but at least I would be dry. I heard the dogs paws clicking on the tile as it followed me.

"What do you want?" I asked it, not expecting an answer. The dog huffed. Its lip was stuck on its bottom teeth, making it look kind of funny. I giggled silently. I figured that, since the dog appeared to be the very opposite of threatening, maybe it could help me find the boy. I wasn't sure if the dog understood me or not, though.

"So what's you're name? Roscoe?" Its tail wiggled. That was a good sign. "Can you show me to your human? Please?" The dog grunted at me. "Your human? Can you bring me to him?" The dog brought its head up to the counter so that I could jump onto his nose. I thought I had finally succeeded. Then, almost right after I had jumped onto it, the dog lowered me to the floor and shook me off. It stared at me for a few moments before turning around and trotting back over to its sleeping spot. I knew it seemed too good to be true.

I decided to start my journey to find the boy's room, where I figured he must be. The analog clock on the microwave in the kitchen read 11:46. The house had a basement, but I didn't think the human would have a room down there. There was no second floor. I began checking on the main floor. One room had someone sleeping in it, but as I approached I could tell that the human was a female. I skittered back down the hallway and into a second room. This one looked more like a boy's room. I carefully made my way over to the bed and tried to see who was there. There was an aquarium in the room that gave me enough light to see who was there. No, this human was a male, but he had short hair. A brother, maybe? I'd figure out later. I exited the room and walked over to the top of the basement steps since there was nowhere else to explore upstairs.

I hopped down the flight of stairs and could hear a TV at the bottom of the steps. I peeked around the corner and saw what must have been the boy's dad sleeping on the couch. He had a nice basement, I thought to myself. It was fully carpeted and furnished just like any other room in the house, not cold with a cement floor like some basements.

There was only one hallway leading away from the living room, so he _had_ to be down there. The first room I entered had no one in it, so it must have been a spare bedroom. That only left one room at the end of the hallway. Getting closer to the door, I could see a faint bluish glow from under the door. It was probably another TV on, so if he took after his dad I suspected that he'd be asleep. I crawled under the door and froze in my tracks.

The boy was awake. He was sitting up in bed on his laptop. Luckily he had a pair of headphones on so he couldn't hear me, and he was probably so preoccupied that he wouldn't even notice me moving around. I backed up against the wall and moved to an area where he couldn't readily see me. The boy also had a small fishtank, like his brother, which gave off light. I would need to wait for him to fall asleep before I could do any digging. I watched the fish zip around in the tank in the meantime.

It felt like I was sitting there forever. Would the human ever go to bed? What was he doing, anyway? I peeked around the corner of the aquarium stand and saw him still up. I sat back down. I saw a few feet away from me a stack of papers and his backpack that I had unsuccessfully tried to grab onto the other day. Next to the backpack was a wallet. And if I knew humans correctly, then I knew that they carried ID with them in their wallets. Yes! I would finally know his name.

I made my way carefully over to the wallet and pried open the button. There, inside the front cover, was his high school ID. Ryan. Senior. I looked back over at him, and back down at the card. It must have been mistaken, since Ryan certainly didn't look like a senior citizen, but the name seemed to fit. I closed the button on the wallet and moved to a spot where I could see the aquarium again.

Just about 10 minutes later, as I was beginning to get very sleepy, I heard a clicking sound. As I gazed upward, the boy had just shut his laptop and laid it down beside his bed. He folded his arms in front of his chest and yawned deeply. I didn't want to do anything until I was sure he was asleep. With his headphones off he could easily hear me in the quiet room.

His breathing had slowed down, so I was pretty sure that he was sleeping by now. I walked over to the end of his bed. I had no idea what I was going to do now. I guess I had not really thought it through at all. After all, it was technically supposed to be repaying the boy for saving me, but how could I make it up to him if he was sleeping?

Either way, I didn't go through all the work for nothing. I grabbed the bottom of the comforter and crawled up to the top. His large feet were sticking out from under his blanket, since he was sleeping on top of the comforter rather than under it for some reason. As I made my way closer to his head I tripped over a fold and brushed against his toes. He moved slightly. I would need to be more careful.

I stood by his chest. The boy was sleeping with his arms crossed and his head bent downward, as he was slightly propped up by pillows. I hesitated, wondering if he would stir if I climbed onto him …

It was all or nothing. I gently gripped his shirt and crawled up to sit on his chest. I rested my back against his folded arms. Now what? I wasn't quite sure.

In any case, I marveled at the human that I had met at the school a seemingly long time ago. Or maybe it was just because this was officially the longest week of my life. He looked the same as I remembered. I had to do _something._ I padded up to his broad shoulders, taking light steps as I went. I could give him a shoulder rub, but it wasn't like he would feel it or remember it in his sleep. Instead, I walked up to his face and schmubbied his cheek.

That's it? That's all I could do? There had to be more. I sat back down on his chest. I could … nah, that would be … remember what Stan said … or would it? I was debating with myself. I gazed up at his face to see him breathing softly. It would be quick and painless. Then I would leave, and I would never have to worry about it again.

I slowly walked up closer to his face until I was just an inch away from him. I was super nervous, my heart beating really fast. I had to get it over with before I got too anxious. And I did. I gently placed my lips against his and held for a second or two … the boy's eyes opened lazily.

"Gahh!" He jerked suddenly and violently when he felt the unknown furry object touching his face. I was practically thrown off the bed and onto the laptop, giving me a bruise on my side from hitting the hard surface, and my a shooting pain went up my ankle. I worried it might have been sprained or broken. I saw him sitting up in bed, his muscles tightened in action and scanning his bed nervously.

He cursed under his breath and looked over as his dog nosed open the door to the room. It must have been close by and heard the commotion. I laid silently on the cover of the laptop, as it hurt a lot to move. The boy got out of bed and stopped to pet the dog by the door. Just then, the dog snorted and walked over to me.

"_No! Get away, you stupid dog!"_ I said to it quietly. But it was too late, and it brought its nose down to me. It was just enough to get the human to come over and inspect. I could only look up at the human's towering figure as he knelt down to see me.

Luckily, he didn't seem fazed to see the ball of fuzz that had woken him up. In the dim light of the room, he curiously touched me with his hand. I was shaking, and I gave a small squeak when he touched my bruised side. He drew back his hand.

"_I'm sorry, little guy!" _he whispered, his eyebrows drawn back into a worried expression. He seemed to genuinely care about animals. _"I've got somewhere I can keep you for the night."_

Wait, for the night? But I needed to go back home! Hillary, the ham-hams … actually …

You know, I didn't need them right now. They would be fine without me for a few days.

The boy cupped his hands around me and very gently picked me up. It was hard to stand up, since my ankle hurt horribly, but I managed to hug his thumb in gratitude. Sure, it was him that knocked me off the bed, but it was me that was messing around where I shouldn't have been. He looked around for a bit, then found a shoe box to put me in. He tousled up some cotton balls and laid them in the corner for me, and put in a water bottle cap filled with water.

"_Sorry, I don't have any food yet. I can get some tomorrow."_ That was alright, I could wait. He placed the shoe box slightly under his bed. I heard him curl back into bed above me. Looked like I wouldn't be going home for a while.

_

* * *

_

_Sandy ya'lls gettin' into shenanigans_


	7. The good life

Chapter 7

Wooops I forgot about this. :O Well, this chapter might be kinda short and might be kinda cliffhanger-y.

* * *

I wasn't woken up by the sun that morning. I found myself sleeping in a bed of cotton balls in an unfamiliar brown environment, but then realized where I was. Oh yeah. I was woken up by the creaking of the bedframe above me as the boy got out of bed. A few seconds later, I glanced up at the top of the shoebox to see his hand slowly pull the box out from under his bed. He knelt down to check on me, and I walked up to the side of the box and got on my tiptoes.

_"Morning_," he said softly. _"Good to see you're still alive. I gotta run and get you some food today."_ He then reached in his hand for me to climb onto, which I gladly did. My leg didn't hurt like it did last night, which was good news. I must have been just bruised, not sprained like I first thought. It was a relief to get out of the box and into the light. He held me in front of his face to get a good look at me. His hair was a mess from just waking up.

"...?" I wasn't quite sure what he was thinking. "...Another hamster?" he said quizzically. "How come all you rodents seem to like me all of a sudden?"

He didn't recognize me? I was kind of disappointed. I had to have been the only hamster with tiger stripes in town. Well, not counting my brother.

_"_Actually ... nahh," he started, but changed the subject. "I better let you run around for a little bit." He put me down onto the carpet, but I didn't want to go anywhere. He nudged me a little bit with his knuckle. I kept my footing.

"Stubborn one, aren't you?" he said. He sighed and picked me back up. "What were you doing on my face last night, anyway?" he asked, looking a little irritated. I looked down at my paws, feeling embarrassed. I looked back up at him to see his lip had curled into a small smile. "S'alright. Here."

I was about to try and jump onto his shoulder, but he lowered me back into the shoebox. "I'll be back in a little while. Stay put, would ya?" He then pushed the box slowly back under his bed, but this time a little further than he had last night. It was probably so no one would see me if they accidentally walked in. I could hear him getting ready for a few minutes, and then he left.

I wondered what the ham-hams would think at this point. It was Sunday today, so they probably wouldn't even notice that I was missing until at least Monday when we all got back together. Actually, they probably wouldn't even notice that I was gone until a few days passed, since they know that sometimes I can't leave the house. I hoped Stan wouldn't come looking for me at my house, because if he discovered I was missing then everyone would freak out. Hillary, of course, would notice immediately. I had already gotten a little bit on her bad side when I hissed at her yesterday. Maybe this whole "adventure" was a mistake ...

He returned not long later, pulling the box back out from under the bed. His dog was beside him trying to shove its nose in the box with me, but the boy was wrestling him back. "Roscoe! Get outta here! Sit!" The boy had a bag of generic hamster food next to him and scooped some next to me. As I looked up I saw something sitting on his desk - a hamster cage! Cool! It was a small one, but better than what I was in now. It needed to be set up first.

I heard the boy messing around with it for a while, and when he was done putting everything in place he picked me up and put me inside.

"This'll have to do. I told my mom I'm taking care of a hamster from school, ha," he said proudly. Ironically, it was kind of the truth. Finally, it felt a little more like home. A part of me was bothered by thinking that, but it felt like a good thing.

Maybe I had gotten _too_ comfortable ...

* * *

Two whole weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. I really hadn't been paying attention to the time, and it hit me. I felt welcomed in my new home, and Ryan was great, but a large part of my life had been missing and I was starting to feel it. The ham-hams.

I can only imagine what probably took place in the course of my absence. I'm sure the first couple days no one really paid attention, but after the long run they probably got worried. They probably did the same as when Hamtaro disappeared: set up missing posters and went searching for me. Stan was really the only one with a lead, but he didn't know what the boy I was talking about even looked like or especially where he lived. After two weeks being missing they probably thought I was gone forever. I hoped Hillary hadn't forgotten about me, either.

Being with Ryan made me temporarily forget about the ones I left behind sometimes. He would often take me out to play with me, and let me roam around without a hamster ball. He wasn't sure what to call me, so he usually just said "Hamster", or "Hammy". Not the most creative name, but then again when went up to his aquarium he usually called all his fish "Fish", so it was kind of expected. At least his dog had a name. I wonder if he'd appreciate if I called him Human or ... hummy? ... hyoomy... What.

A few times he let me lay on his chest while he was on his laptop, and another time I got to go with to the convenience store to get groceries, though I was well hidden under his scarf because I'm pretty sure rodents aren't welcome there. It was well into December by this time. I sure felt like I was spoiled.

It was a Friday after he had gotten home from school, and he set his backpack down and walked up to my cage on his desk. "Hey Hammy, let's go to the store. You behaved yourself last time, so you can come again," he said with a grin. I was excited, because I rarely left the house anymore. He laid his hand out as a platform in front of the cage door and I happily ran up his arm to sit on his shoulder. I nuzzled up to his neck as he carefully put on his scarf and got ready. "I hope you don't mind, but we're gonna walk. It's nice enough outside. Good exercise, ya know."

It was a bit of a long walk, but it was nice to get out and see the world again. Not much had changed since I left. As Ryan walked by the park I was reminded that the way to the convenience store passed awfully close to the clubhouse. The first time I saw the boy walking down the sidewalk with a few bags of groceries in his hands was when I stumbled out onto the sidewalk during our race. I really wanted to see what was up with the those guys, but my heart beat nervously thinking about it. I peered out from within the comfort of his scarf to see if I could catch a glimpse of the ham-hams, but no such luck. The tree was too far away and they were probably inside.

As I arched my back trying to see the Clubhouse, my sensitive hamster ears heard a small sound from below. My eyes glanced downward. There, at the edge of the bushes, stood an all-too-familiar tiger-striped hamster with his mouth agape, a look of utter shock on his face.

They found me.

* * *

Oh deary me~


	8. O, Fortuna

Chapter 8

* * *

I sure had the best luck in the world. If I had to pick any other hamster to have been poking out of that bush I would have much preferred someone like Jingle, who would have not given a care in the world as to what I was up to and would have been too airheaded to even tell the ham-hams he had seen me. "I'm just following the wind," I'd tell him, and that'd be totally righteous. Then maybe he'd get on the next train to Bangkok, if you know what I mean.

Of course that'd never happen to me, and by fate me and Stan are always drawn together somehow. Stan's look of surprise turned quickly to anger as he quickly discovered what I had been up to for the last two weeks. And always one to make a brash decision, he ran out onto the sidewalk as soon as we passed, jumping right into the path of the human and holding out his paws in a "halt" motion. How he expected to stop a creature who utterly dwarfed him was beyond me, and made me a little nervous for a moment.

Luckily Ryan had been paying attention to the ground and paused, fully alert, looking down curiously at the rodent in his path. I glanced up at his face to see him looking quite bewildered.

"...?"

Stan completely transcended the normal level of idiocy when he suddenly charged at the human's feet, chomping down on his shoe and probably not even coming close to breaking the exterior or accomplishing anything he thought he would. What did Stan think would happen, he would defeat the "evil" human in one stroke and then Ryan would say "Here! Have her back! You win!" and run away?

"Agh!" Instead, Ryan gave a small startled gasp and stumbled backwards, then quickly stepped past him. He jogged for a short distance, peering back to make sure the psychotic rodent wasn't following him. Stan looked rather defeated, though he managed to sneak in a glare at me.

"Crazy animals!" Ryan said under his breath as he finally slowed down. He must not have looked closely enough to see that the hamster he just met looked exactly like me. I nuzzled his neck and he reached his hand up to stroke my fur. "Sorry 'bout that."

Though Ryan may have gotten away now, I knew it was far from over, and I guarantee the ham-hams would be all over this. Now that they knew I hadn't dropped off the face of the earth they'd start feverishly looking for me again, and now thanks to Stan they'd know the identity of the human I was staying with. It was only a matter of time.

I continued with Ryan to the gas station, observing my surroundings as I passed them from his shoulder. I tried to think about other things to keep my mind off of Stan and the ham-hams, but I really couldn't. Did Maxwell miss me? I began to long for him. I loved to learn new things from him, and I missed his soft embrace. There was something about fur that was always very inviting. I missed the art of conversation that I lacked with the human. The most I could do with the boy was give a small nod or other gesture, not that he paid much attention.

Did Hillary forget about me too? I hadn't even seen her since I ran off. I definitely missed her company, too. Ryan was a very nice human and took good care of me, but it just wasn't the same. Hillary had been around for me since I was a baby, and she would always be my true owner. I just couldn't bring myself to picture Ryan as my human. A cold breeze blew past me; I shivered.

Finally, we approached the gas station. The smell of gasoline was strong in my nose while I watched a few cars pull up next to one of the pumps. A bell jingled as Ryan pushed open the door with his palm, receiving a quick greeting from the clerk. I craned my neck outward to get a better look all the things they had for sale, but Ryan just as soon pushed me down into his scarf with two fingers so no one would see me. He then picked out a small bag of snacks and a pop and brought them up to the counter to pay. I waited patiently until he was out of the store so I could get a better look. When we walked out of the store it was again chilly, and I wrapped part of his scarf around myself to keep warm.

We eventually got home and reached his bedroom, where I remained on his shoulder while he moved his backpack onto the floor. Looked like he was getting ready to do some homework. He reached up his hand and placed me on the ground before laying down on his stomach in front of a green textbook that was nearly as thick as I was tall. Apparently it was AP Biology. I watched the human absentmindedly munch on his snacks, "corn nuts" they were called, which sounded awfully delicious to any hamster. I tried to go pick one up but he put his hand in my way, saying something about "not good for you". I silently pouted.

After nearly 45 minutes of taking notes on the inner workings of plants, Ryan had laid his head down for a moment but ended up falling asleep on top of his textbook. I sighed, wondering if I should have woken him up. It couldn't have been too comfy for him on the floor. Instead, I curled up next to his broad shoulders and fell asleep myself.

* * *

"Sandy!"

I heard a familiar voice call out in the dark room, illuminated only by the flourescent light of the aquarium. It sounded like Stan. I had to be dreaming, though. I ignored it.

"Psst! Sandy!"

I looked up the second time and scanned the room. I let out a small gasp upon seeing a row of small shadows on the human's desk. The ham-hams? No! It couldn't be! There's no way they could have found me so fast! It was too soon.

"C'mon, Sandy! We're gonna get you out of here!" Stan called out.

"No! What are you guys doing? You need to get out of here!" It looked like every single one of the had shown up to come get me, and I assumed they had been led my none other than my own brother.

"I mean it! You need to come back with us, Sandy!"

"I'll come back on my own time! I'll leave tomorrow! You guys shouldn't be here! What if ..." I replied. They were defiant, though.

"If you don't come on your own will, we'll come get you ourselves!" Boss yelled. With that, he, Stan, and Maxwell jumped off the desk and promptly charged towards me. The others followed soon behind to support them.

"No!!" I shouted at them to no avail. Stan was the first at me and grabbed my arm, with the other two right behind. I lunged at Ryan's sleeve and gripped it as tight as I could muster, but I wouldn't be able to hold off three grown ham-hams for very long. I kicked at Stan as he grabbed my shoulders in an attempt to rip me away. Maxwell was more gentle and pleaded with me to come. I can't say that I wasn't tempted, but out of spite against Stan I kept holding on. Suddenly, I felt the surface underneath the sleeve shift. Our ensuing scuffle had woken up Ryan. I backed up and tried to quickly get the three boys to move, but it was too late. Ryan arched his back up and almost immediately saw the entire group of us. The look on his face was some mixture of surprise and horror.

"!!!!!" His expression quickly turned into anger. "_What is up with you things?!"_ He jerked away from us and hastily got to his knees. "_Leave me alone!!" _ I saw him look around for a short moment, then he reached out his hand swiftly to pull me away from the others, only recognizing me by the ribbon on my tail. His quick reaction caught me off guard and the rough action caused me to give a slight cry.

"_Hey!!"_ a hamster voice cried out, so loud that I was sure it was audible to the human. Maxwell had come running at me with a look of unmatched rage. He must have assumed the boy was trying to hurt me. Without a hesitation, he chomped down as forcefully as he could between the boy's thumb and forefinger, using his nails to dig into the skin and wrenching his teeth to the side to do as much damage as possible. It must have hurt, as the human gave a small yelp and exhaled sharply, but it wasn't over yet. The pain had caused him to instinctively jolt his hand foreward to get rid of his attacker. He backhanded Maxwell squarely in the face, the force being equal to a hamster-sized truck, and he was sent sprawling backwards. Maxwell's body lay still on the carpet. The room went completely silent as everyone momentarily held their breath.

Oh, no. Oh no no _no_. This was it. What had I done? I suddenly realized I had made the hugest mistake of my life.

I ran towards Maxwell, calling out his name. I paused at his side. The ham-hams had backed up, none of them daring to come closer.

"Maxwell! _No!!_" I cried over him. My tears rolled off my cheek and dripped onto his fur. He made no response, completely out cold. He looked to be hurt pretty bad. I didn't even want to consider that he could be dead ...

The human evidently realized what he had done, as it was probably an accidental reaction, and brought his hand down towards us. I was furious. I hissed angrily at him and lunged violently in his direction. The fur on my back was standing on end. Ryan took this warning and quickly withdrew. He pulled his hand up towards his lip, unsure of what to do. He looked worried. At the same time I got a glimpse of Maxwell's bite, and it was definitely not your ordinary one. It was an extended cut where Maxwell had used his teeth to rip the skin, and a lot of dark red blood was dripping down the hand towards his wrist. The human brought his wound to his mouth and licked it slightly to keep the blood from spreading.

As I looked back, the ham-hams had come running towards us to help. Boss hoisted up Maxwell onto his shoulder, who slumped over like dead weight.

"C'mon! We need to get going!" Stan said to me. This time I didn't argue when he grabbed my paw and pulled me along. We ran out the door and past the rottweiler, who looked too surprised to even react to the troop of hamsters that were marching past him. I looked back one final time to see the boy staring in our direction, a look of sadness and disappointment on his face. He made no effort to stop me.

* * *

When we got back to the clubhouse as fast as we could, Maxwell was prompty laid down with some soft pillows to keep him propped up. He looked even worse in the light. His nose was dripping blood all over and onto the floor, and his fur was disheveled. His mouth was held open and a bruise had begun to appear near his jaw. Maxwell looked awful.

The ham-hams gathered around in a circle but allowed me to have my space near him. I buried my face into his warm, soft chest, just praying that he would wake up. The fact that I had returned had been overshadowed by Maxwell's injuries.

"I hope he's alright ..." Cappy squeaked, pulling his cap over his eyes.

"He'll make it, I'm sure of it!" Hamtaro said confidently.

I nodded and choked back more tears. It was all my fault that Maxwell had been hurt. Here was the hamster who had almost never had an ounce of physical activity in his life, and he had just acted as the hero trying to save me. He really _did_ care. I worried it may have been too little too late.

A few minutes passed. I was beginning to lose hope. Suddenly, I felt a stirring beneath me accompanied by a low grunt.

"Maxwell?" I asked anxiously. He really was alright! He blinked open his eyes and wiped a paw over his blood-caked face, evidently surprised at his condition.

"Glad to see you're back, Sandy," he said softly. He held his paw up against his forehead and groaned.

"More like, glad to see you're okay! Oh Maxwell!" I hugged him in a tight embrace, but carefully as to not cause him any pain. The ham-hams cheered around us. "You know, sometimes I think you're the craziest ham-ham I've ever met."

"Is that good or bad news?" he asked playfully.

"Mostly good news. We can be crazy together." I winked. "I really missed you, Maxy. I missed all of you guys." I looked around at everyone in the room. They all seemed to agree.

"We missed you too, Sandy. Especially us girls," Bijou said. "It just wasn't the same with one of us gone. It was like a piece of the puzzle had gone missing."

"Ookwee!" Penelope added joyfully.

I turned towards Stan, who I had not truly conversed with in a long time because we had been angry with each other. He took his turn to talk first. "Sandy, I'm sorry ..."

"Sorry? What's there to be sorry about?" I said.

He spoke in his rarely-used serious tone. "I just wanted to protect you, sis. I just wanted everything to be in your best interests."

"I should have listened to you," I told him. "I was being stupid. Totally foolish. I don't know what I was thinking, abandoning all of you guys like that. You're more than I could ever ask for."

Stan nodded. "Yeah, I knew what was going on. I know you told me not to tell anyone you had a thing for that human boy, but as soon as you went missing I had to spill the beans. We were all concerned about you, but we had no idea where to even start looking," he said. "We never forgot about you. I even overheard that Hillary had been pretty devastated when she lost you."

I felt good knowing that everyone cared so much about me. "How did you every manage to find me at the boy's house, then?"

"Well, you see ..." Stan started, "When I finally saw you on his shoulder as he was walking down the street, after he ran off, I followed you guys the rest of the way. I followed you all the way back to the house. I didn't want to go in without the help of the others, though, so I waited for tonight."

"That's awfully shady of you," I said with a grin. "Sorry for putting up so much of a fight back there, though. I should have just come to begin with."

"Don't worry about it," Boss said. "The important thing is that you're back. Maxwell will get better."

That reminded me. "Say, Maxwell," I said looking down at him as he rested on his pillow. "Let's never get separated again. Agreed?" I saw his face brighten up.

"Agreed." And with that he reached up his arms and pulled me down towards him to embrace in a proper kiss.

* * *

This is technically the "last" chapter, but there's still an epilogue coming since there's a lot of loose ends to tie up still. Stay tuned!


	9. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Sorry I forgot D:

* * *

A few days later I found myself walking down the same old sidewalk with Maxwell, the one past the bushes by the clubhouse. Everything had gone back to normal there since my return. I heard from the girls that there was an air of sadness from everyone since I had gone missing and many attempts had been made to find me. I was glad to be back with my old friends.

I was happy to see Hillary, too. Since I had been gone for over two weeks, she had assumed I would never return and was overjoyed when I appeared again. She had really missed me after all, even after I hissed at her. My cage was cleaned up and supplied with fresh food and treats.

As for Maxwell, he was recovering just fine from the incident, although slightly sore all over. He said he was getting better though. His human had discovered him acting rather lethargic and took him in to the amazing Dr. Lion who gave him some form of liquid medicine to ease the pain. The vet could tell he was bruised up, but could not give much of an answer as to why seeing as Maxwell's owner Yume insisted that he had never left his cage. The medicine helped a lot, he told me.

In all honesty, Maxwell should have still been resting, but I had an important duty to fulfill. I had brought him here for a reason.

This sidewalk also happened to be the one leading to the convenience store. There was a certain someone who I needed to offer my apology to. The whole ordeal had left a rather bitter taste in my mouth and probably his, and I needed to do something about it.

I knew the human well enough now that I could easily predict his schedule. Ryan always stopped by the store on his way home from school on this day of the week. He was rather cheap and liked to save on gas by walking every once in a while, and this day was warmer than usual. I knew he would be here soon.

And I was right. With Maxwell at my side, I saw the all-too-familiar mane of red hair come into focus in the distance. I knew that the boy would stop if we were in his path, so we kept walking. When we were about 10 feet away we stopped and waited.

A few steps later he saw us, and as expected, he stopped. I looked up at him momentarily to make sure he wasn't going anywhere, then approached. Maxwell watched closely. I hugged the boy's ankle.

Ryan soon kneeled down. It seemed like he recognized me as I felt his large hand, strong yet gentle, caress my back. He kindly lifted me for a moment and set me back in front of him. He had a look of kindness on his face. The next test would be to see if Maxwell would accept him.

Maxwell looked towards me and then Ryan, who watched curiously. A few long seconds later he took a small step forward. He nodded politely, a silent apology. Ryan saw this advance as non-threatening and slowly extended out his hand to softly pet Maxwell. As Ryan rubbed Maxwell's head I finally saw again the injury that had been left between his thumb and forefinger. It too, like Maxwell's, had begun to heal and didn't look nearly as bad as when it had first been inflicted.

That was it, my mission had been fulfilled, and there was no more left for me to do. Ryan rested his hands on his knees as he observed us. I motioned over to Maxwell to pull off to the side so that the boy could continue on his way. The human saw this and lifted himself to a full standing position. He gave us one last little smile before moving on.

While I knew Maxwell would always be the rightful one for me, the human had been very kind to me. If nothing else, we could at least remain friends.

"Sandy?" I heard from the hamster at my side. "Mind if I walk you home?"


End file.
